A federal appeals court on Friday upheld former cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried's 2023 fraud conviction, which comes just days after he applied for a presidential pardon.

Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted on two counts of conspiracy and five counts of fraud in 2023 after his cryptocurrency empire collapsed unexpectedly in November 2022 when the company suffered the equivalent of a bank run. 

The former cryptocurrency mogul still denies stealing funds from users, maintaining that it was a case of his crypto platform being "over-collateralized," and that all customers have since been repaid.

A panel of judges in the Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument, ruling “the government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust," according to Politico.

Bankman-Fried is hoping President Donald Trump will pardon him after the completion of his sentence, but the president said in January that he does not have any plans to pardon the FTX founder.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.