He was amongst Britain’s fastest once; now the Olympian has spent years trying to outrun his past after a doping ban led to a stripped medal. Yet, while CJ Ujah has kept his head down since his return, he now finds himself in a courtroom, not a starting block. The 32-year-old faces allegations tied to a cryptocurrency scam that involves six-figure sums from victims. The rebuild, it seems, has taken a far darker turn.

The BBC reported that Ujah and the nine other people accused of the cryptocurrency fraud appeared before Chelmsford Crown Court. There, the allegations were read as prosecutors for the Crown alleged that he was a part of an elaborate scam to dupe victims. According to the report, the group acted as both police officers and representatives of a crypto company.

Then they allegedly called victims to obtain information, which gave them access to their cryptocurrency wallets. One victim reported losses of over £300,000. This comes after a detailed investigation by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit across three different counties in the country. That included London, Kent, and Essex, and initial reports indicated they were part of a larger group linked to a bigger scam.

Ujah was one of six suspects who received bail before the May 28th hearing. That didn’t apply to Brandon Mingeli, Louis Richards-Miller, Joseph Umoru, and Jami Durston, who remained in custody. The other five, including Taiwo Yusuf, Kehinde Yusuf, Jayden Nakayama, Adedeji Kujore and Samantha Gyabaa, were also allowed out on bail.

However, the BBC reported that none of the ten defendants were asked to enter pleas just yet. That could change on July 24th, as all ten defendants are due back in court. Furthermore, Ujah reportedly also faces a separate charge of supplying a banned substance, though the authorities have not provided further details for that case.

This does mark a big mark on CJ Ujah’s career, although this isn’t the first time that he has been in trouble with the law. The British sprinter once stood as one of the United Kingdom’s best.

So much so that he became the fifth Brit to break sub-10 in the 100m and the youngest on that list. It marked the start of a promising career, but things quickly went downhill. In 2021, Ujah, alongside Zhamel Hughes, Richard Kitty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, won the Olympic silver medal. That was in the 4x100m relays, where they finished just behind Italy at the Tokyo Games in an incredible race.

The quartet was only milliseconds behind gold medalists Italy, but tragedy struck after the race. Ujah received a 22-month ban after testing positive for two banned substances. The team consequently lost their silver medal, and Canada received it. That’s even if the now 32-year-old eventually proved that the doping was unintentional.

Yet, his ban remained in place, with Ujah eventually returning to the track in 2023. The ban and stripped medal left the entire 4x100m British relay team embarrassed. That’s even if Ujah later proved that the positive test was unintentional, with Richard Kilty refusing to forgive him.

Richard Kilty refuses to forgive Ujah despite teammates doing so

It was a magical race in Tokyo for Britain. That was especially as Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake crossed the line milliseconds behind Italy to seal the silver medal for them. It marked the first time in sixteen years that Great Britain’s men’s relay team had won a medal in the 4x100m. The last time they did so was when Mark Lewis-Francis led them to a gold at the 2004 Olympics.

The women’s team did manage to break the overall drought with a bronze at the 2016 Games, but the men struggled. It’s why the 2020 Olympics medal meant that much to Richard Kilty, and it’s why he felt let down by CJ Ujah.

“As a team-mate I feel let down,” Kilty told the Telegraph in 2022. “For the last 20 years of my career – the same as the other two lads – we have worked our as*es off. We have followed the rules, in and out.”

Not just let down, but for Kilty, it meant that he couldn’t even leave his house. Even his children felt the impact. So much so that his youngest son was getting teased at school because his dad “had his medal taken”. That, more than anything, hurt the now-retired sprinter, and he asserted that he would never forgive Ujah for it.

“What he’s done has been reckless, and he’s jeopardised our work,” Kilty added. “Everything has been a team effort. We’ve always done what we’ve done to get to that position to be part of the British 4 x 100 strike four. 

“Now he’s made that mistake, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him because me, Zharnel and Nethaneel have lost a medal at the hands of his mistakes.”

However, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake has since issued a public statement in support of Ujah. In fact, he was even a big supporter of the now 32-year-old sprinter while he was serving his two-year ban until 2023. He wasn’t the only one, as Rhys Prescod also publicly forgave Ujah after the incident.

Yet the 32-year-old did not make the 2024 Olympics team, while Kilty picked up a bronze medal in the relay. The divisions created by Tokyo still linger within British athletics. Now, as Ujah prepares to return to court in July, his future rests on a very different verdict altogether.