Call it the Great Subway Robbery. Prosecutors say the woman buying supplies for Subway owners and her brother pocketed millions in kickbacks.
A federal grand jury has indicted Janet Risi Field, 66, and her brother Steven Louis Risi, 70, in a scheme that allegedly cost Subway franchisees more than $80 million, according to NBC 6 South Florida. Risi Field founded Independent Purchasing Cooperative, the nonprofit that negotiates supply deals for Subway franchisees, and ran it from 1996 to 2021. Its whole job was getting owners the lowest prices.
But prosecutors say Risi Field cut secret deals with vendor brokers who shared a slice of their contract profits with her. Shell companies allegedly collected more than $60 million. The money reportedly paid for homes in Florida and North Carolina, jewelry and private clubs. A slush fund even covered her personal assistant, housekeeper and handyman.
When IPC’s board fired her in 2021 for unrelated reasons, it had no idea about the scam. She walked away with more than $6 million in severance. The siblings face up to 20 years in prison. Subway isn’t named in the indictment. Instead, prosecutors call the restaurant company “an American multinational fast-food chain that specialized in submarine sandwiches and had over 20,000 locations in North America.”
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