A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has indicted Janet Risi Field, the longtime former CEO of Subway's Independent Purchasing Cooperative (IPC), and her brother on charges they defrauded the chain's franchisees of more than $80 million through secret vendor bribes and kickbacks.

Field, 66, ran the IPC from 1996 through 2021 and controlled contracting with vendors supplying food and other goods to Subway operators. Those contracts set the prices franchisees paid for core menu inputs — meats, cheeses and cookies — making the purchasing co-op a direct lever on restaurant-level food costs across the system.

According to the Justice Department, Field arranged secret deals with vendor brokers, who then shared a portion of their fees with brokers and members of Field's family. The indictment alleges that Field, her brother Steven Louis Risi, 70, and other family members used shell companies to conceal more than $60 million in payments.

The alleged personal spending was substantial. Field used the funds to remodel and furnish homes in Florida and North Carolina, buy $400,000 in jewelry and fund private club memberships, prosecutors say. The indictment also accuses her of having a co-conspirator maintain a multimillion-dollar slush fund that paid $420,000 to a family assistant and more than $150,000 to her housekeeper and handyman.

The scheme allegedly reached back more than a decade. In 2011, Field had a co-conspirator pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a former IPC contractor who claimed she had an inappropriate relationship with vendors — and concealed the allegations and settlement details from the co-op's board.

Prosecutors say the funds moved through shell companies and bank accounts. Field paid $3.4 million in credit card expenses from the laundered money and directed roughly $25 million in slush fund payments to herself and other co-conspirators.

The concealment held until the end of her tenure. The IPC's directors and franchisees were unaware of the payments in 2021, when Field was terminated and — before the alleged fraud surfaced — paid a $6 million severance.

The charges against the siblings include conspiracy to launder money and two counts of using illegally attained money. Field additionally faces conspiracy to commit fraud and five counts of misusing her position for personal gain.

Subway has not responded to a request for comment.

The criminal case follows civil action. The IPC sued Field last year in Miami, naming several brokers and vendors and accusing them of defrauding operators through more than $200 million in kickback arrangements.

The civil claim and the criminal indictment together will test how much of the alleged kickback losses franchisees can recover, and whether the IPC's vendor-contracting controls change in the wake of a scheme that ran undetected for most of Field's 25-year tenure.