Three years on from his return after a nearly two-year doping ban, things have gone wrong for a two-time British sprint champion yet again. The 32-year-old had kept his head down since his comeback, but hasn’t been on the track since April 2025. Unfortunately, it seems CJ Ujah is in hot water again, as reports indicate that authorities have arrested the Olympian.

According to the Guardian, the British sprinter is one of 10 suspects charged with conspiracy to defraud. This comes after a lengthy police investigation into a cryptocurrency fraud. The reports indicate that the suspects are part of an organized crime group, linked to a larger scam.

“It is alleged the suspects were part of an organised crime group linked ‌to a scam which involved ‌phone calls to multiple victims, from people purporting to be police officers and cryptocurrency companies,” reads the statement from ROCU as per the Independent.

“Victims are reported to have been tricked into sharing important security details, including seed phrases, before discovering funds stored in their crypto wallets had been stolen.”

The Guardian and the Independent reported that authorities arrested and charged CJ Ujah following a long and detailed investigation. Spearheaded by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit across London, Kent, and Essex, the ten suspects appeared in court last week. There, the report indicates, Ujah was one of seven suspects to be granted bail ahead of the next hearing.

The Athletic has reported that the case details include allegations that the group was calling people posing as police officers and cryptocurrency companies. From there, they tricked victims into revealing important details about their crypto wallets. Later, nearly all the victims realised that funds from their wallets had been stolen, with one losing over £300,000.

Furthermore, according to the reports, Ujah isn’t the only athlete in the group. Brandon Mingeli, a 100m sprinter, was one of the ten suspects arrested. This, unfortunately, isn’t the first time that CJ Ujah has been in trouble with the law. The Enfield-born sprinter was once regarded as one of the best the United Kingdom had produced.

At his peak, he was the fifth British sprinter to break sub-10 in the 100m and the youngest to do so. Alongside Zhamel Hughes, Richard Kitty, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, and Ujah won the silver at the 2021 Olympics. The quartet finished just behind Italy with a time of 37.51 in the 4x100m relays.

However, Ujah received a 22-month ban after testing positive for two banned substances. That saw Great Britain stripped of the medal, although Ujah has since proved that the doping was unintentional. However, his ban remained in place, and the athlete could only return in 2023. Since his return, he represented Great Britain in the 2024 European Championships.

CJ Ujah faces his second scandal in four years. Yet, the first time left a mark he spent years trying to shake.

CJ Ujah reflects on his 22-month doping suspension

Utah was hit hard after being suspended following his positive test at the Tokyo Olympics. It saw his Olympic silver medal stripped, him ostracised from the British sprinting community, and his reputation lost. However, CJ Ujah could take comfort in the fact that he proved his positive test was unintentional.

According to the Guardian, the 2021 British Champion ingested a tainted amino acid supplement he bought on Amazon, which led to the test. The authorities later confirmed, although Ujah still had to serve a 22-month ban. It was arguably one of the toughest times in his career, but the sprinter simply kept his head down and went about his life.

“I’ve just been keeping my head down,” Ujah told the Guardian in 2023. “They say time heals, so hopefully, although they will never forget, they might forgive.

“I’ve just got to do my part on the track. If you genuinely actually did it [cheat], then you’d be like: ‘Oh, I got caught.’ But the fact that it happened and it was such a shock, and I couldn’t believe it – I feel like that moment was my darkest day. Everything now I’m ready to take, good and bad.”

For CJ Ujah, another attempt at rebuilding his career now hangs under a far darker cloud. And after spending years trying to move past one controversy, the former Olympic medalist finds himself back in the spotlight again.