INDIANAPOLIS (CN) – A federal judge on Wednesday rejected an effort by Jared Fogle, the former face of Subway sandwiches, to overturn his conviction for traveling to engage in sex with a minor, filed on his behalf by a jailhouse lawyer.

Fellow inmate Frank Pate filed a motion for Fogle, claiming the court lacked jurisdiction over Fogle because of his status as a so-called “sovereign citizen.”

Pate is housed with Fogle at the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution in Littleton, Colo.

A sovereign citizen is someone who believes they are not governed by authorities or subject to laws.

In a two-page ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Pratt rejected Fogle’s challenge.

“If Fogle is now claiming to be ‘sovereign,’ the Seventh Circuit has rejected theories of individual sovereignty, immunity from prosecution, and their ilk,” Pratt wrote. “Regardless of his theory, Fogle’s challenge of this court’s jurisdiction is rejected.”

Two years ago, Fogle entered a guilty plea to distributing or receiving child pornography and traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. The court sentenced him to 15 1/2 years in prison.

Fogle was charged with obtaining and looking at child pornography to “fuel his sexual fantasies involving children,” the Justice Department said at the time of sentencing, and he knew that the victims were under 18.

Prosecutors said that Fogle had traveled to New York to have sex with a 17-year-old girl and then returned two more times to the city to pay for sex with two other underage girls.

Fogle agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 victims in the case and forfeit $50,000 in assets.

Fogle became known as the “Subway Guy” and was a prominent fixture in ads for the fast food company for 15 years. He asserted that a diet of Subway sandwiches had led to his dramatic weight loss.

His conviction was affirmed by an appeals court last year.