Coach of suspended sprinter faces punishment following investigation
After an investigation alongside the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the Athletics Integrity Unit handed Monteverde Academy Coach Gerald Phiri a provisional suspension. The AIU alleged Phiri possessed multiple banned drugs that modulate metabolism and failed to 'cooperate with the investigation by providing false and inaccurate information.'
The AIU said it opened an investigation after three of Phiri's athletes tested positive for GW1516 — a drug, known as cardarine, that alters how the body metabolizes fat — between July 2023 and August 2024. The AIU alleged that Phiri, a former Zambian Olympian, possessed GW1516 as an athlete in 2018 and 2019 and possessed meldonium, another banned metabolism drug, in 2024.
Phiri plans to appeal the suspension, Montverde Sports Information Manager Michael Damon said in an emailed statement.
In July 2023, when he was a sprinter at Montverde, Asinga tested positive for GW1516, which nullified his under-20 world record in the 100 meters and cost him a chance to compete at last year's Paris Olympics for Suriname, his father's native country and the flag he chose to compete under.
World Athletics suspended Asinga in May last year. Asinga's final appeal will be heard later this year at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. The case is expected to be heard in April, according to public filings.
Asinga sued Gatorade last summer, claiming he had ingested GW1516 through a contaminated package of energy gummies given to him at a Gatorade awards ceremony. (A lab tested the gummies and informed the AIU that they returned positive for GW1516.) Asinga also claimed the gummies were labeled falsely as certifiably tested and that Gatorade delayed in providing Asinga materials he could have used to prove his innocence.
Gatorade called the claims 'false.' The lawsuit remains ongoing in the Southern District of New York. Gatorade filed a motion to dismiss the suit in early January. Asinga's lawyers responded in filings that the motion should be denied and 'Issam's claims should move to discovery, where he can begin to learn more about how and why his life became derailed by Gatorade's dangerous product.'
Phiri joined Montverde Academy, a Florida prep school known for its elite athletic program, as an assistant coach in 2018 and became the head track and field coach in 2021. Phiri ran collegiately for Texas A&M and represented Zambia at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
'As this is an ongoing investigation, we have not been provided with any substantive details at this time,' Damon said in the statement. 'In compliance with the suspension, Coach Phiri will also be suspended from Montverde Academy and will not have any personal contact with our student-athletes pending the outcome of the investigation.'
GW1516 is illegal for use in food or medication in the United States. According to USADA, it was pulled from clinical trials after it caused cancer when tested on animals.
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Rags to riches To her 100,000 TikTok followers, Chapman seemed to be a typical suburban, middle-aged American. She shared healthy eating tips in selfie videos posted online. Off camera, she was engaged in covert activity that could have seen her jailed for life. According to a 2024 indictment, Chapman became entangled in the IT worker scheme around October 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was sweeping the US, and companies were quickly transitioning to remote work. In a LinkedIn message, Chapman was approached by someone asking her to 'be the US face' of a company and assist in helping remote IT workers secure jobs in the US, despite having no experience in the tech industry herself. Around that time Chapman had been posting about her financial struggles on TikTok. 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'I start at 5:30, go straight to my office which is the next door away from my bedroom. Then I start taking care of my clients. Computer business. It's now almost noon, and I'm just now getting to eat,' she says, biting into a piece of watermelon. A message exchange from November 2022 Chapman and 'AT,' a remote North Korean IT worker, offers a revealing look at her working day. At one point, Chapman was even asked to join a Microsoft Teams meeting between AT and their employer to help resolve technical issues. Chapman initially expressed concern about having to join the meeting, but was able to suggest an explanation AT could use. Chapman also shipped dozens of work laptops to Liaoning – a province of China that borders North Korea, according to the DOJ indictment. Images obtained and geolocated by CNN showed workers living relatively freely in Liaoning, as well as Laos, dining at restaurants, singing karaoke and chartering yachts. Photos published by the DOJ show what appears to be Chapman's office in 2023. Rows of labeled laptops sit on open shelves in a small room that federal investigators say she used to perpetrate a "staggering fraud on a multitude of industries." At one point, Chapman handled as many as 90 laptops for the DPRK IT workers, the DOJ said. Among the companies targeted was the shoe giant Nike, which unwittingly paid more than $75,000 to a North Korean employee and subsequently conducted a review to confirm there was no data breach. Computers and other electronic equipment inside the laptop farm at Chapman's home. United States District Court for the District of Columbia Chapman attached notes to identify the companies and identities associated with each device. United States District Court for the District of Columbia Of the 68 stolen identities that Chapman and her group of North Korea IT workers used, CNN was able to trace one identity with computer data provided by Palo Alto Network's Unit 42. "Breeyan Cornelius' was a stolen identity used by several North Korean IT workers, according to Gordenker, Consulting Director at Unit 42. He told CNN the real Cornelius was a bus driver living in California. CNN reached out to Cornelius but did not receive a response. The North Korean worker behind the fictitious 'Breeyan Cornelius' profile. Unit 42, Palo Alto Networks CNN reviewed computer data belonging to the North Koreans operating under the name 'Breeyan Cornelius' and found dozens of IT-related job applications and searches at American companies. In some cases, companies replied and even offered job interviews to the North Korean. In a fake resume, 'Breeyan Cornelius' claimed to be a 'Well-qualified Full Stack Developer familiar with wide range of programming utilities and languages.' The resume also claimed he graduated from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 2014. Under work history, the profile also claimed previous employment at Bank of America and German pharmaceutical giant Bayer. 'We understand he operates in Liaoning,' Gordenker said, referring to the Chinese province that shares a lengthy border with North Korea. A few years into her new job, Chapman was enjoying the new income stream, travelling to Fukuoka and Tokyo to watch – and meet – a Japanese boyband. Videos from the trip show her marveling at the 'chic' lobby, touring her 'adorable' hotel room and gushing about all the new Japanese foods she'd been trying. Text messages from around the same time show her growing nervous about handling federal documents, according to the indictment. 'I can go to FEDERAL PRISON for falsifying federal documents,' she said in one message in August 2023, to a group that included several co-conspirator overseas IT workers. Shortly after, her life began to unravel. In late October 2023, the FBI executed a search warrant at her home in Litchfield Park. Photo of Chapman from the search warrant. Federal Bureau of Investigation Photo of Chapman's home from the search warrant. Federal Bureau of Investigation By March 2024, Chapman posted a TikTok video describing her struggles: 'I need help and I'm really bad at asking,' she said. 'I haven't worked since the end of October, and that's not by choice, I lost my job and I've gone through all of my savings.' She was arrested in May 2024, and legal proceedings began. By August, the toll was evident. She posted another plea on TikTok: 'I have been struggling quite a bit financially, and I did lose my house, I have to be out by tomorrow morning,' she said. 'If anyone is willing, five, 10 dollars.' Around this time, she began selling products on various websites, including artwork, books, custom poems, and 'credit fixing assistance.' In February 2025, Chapman ended her legal troubles by waiving her right to a jury trial and pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. The DOJ said she claimed she wasn't aware she was working for the North Koreans, but Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Matthew Galeotti told CNN that that was 'irrelevant.' 'She knew that she was working for individuals abroad. She knew that they were using false identities. She knew that she was forging documents for her bank accounts. She knew that some of the addresses that she was sending hardware to were on the border of China and North Korea,' he said. 'The safety of our nation is at issue' In late June, the DOJ conducted sweeping raids and searches at 29 known or suspected laptop farms across 16 states, seizing around 200 laptops. With all North Korean workers located outside the US, in countries without extradition treaties with the US, these raids are one of the few tangible ways authorities can disrupt the scheme, Galeotti said. 'You will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The defendant in this case [Chapman] made perhaps just north of $170,000. It's not worth it,' he warned. Chapman arrived at her sentencing hearing at a US District Court in Washington DC on July 24 wearing dark glasses and accompanied by a camera crew. Inside the court, public defender Alexis Gardner argued for the lowest possible sentence. 'She's a pawn in this whole scheme,' Gardner told the court. Speaking through tears, Chapman told the court she began running the laptop farm because her mother was ill at the time. She expressed remorse for the harm she had caused people whose identities were stolen and used by the North Koreans. Christina Chapman cries outside a US District Court in Washington DC on the day of her sentencing. CNN 'The fact that I was part of something that caused so much damage to somebody,' Chapman said, sobbing. 'I really hate myself because of that.' Judge Randolph Moss acknowledged she seemed 'genuinely remorseful' but handed down a sentence of 102 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release. 'The safety of our nation is at issue,' he said. US authorities have vowed to track down other American citizens knowingly or unknowingly helping the Kim regime evade international sanctions, offering millions of dollars in rewards in exchange for information. US officials said it's not just money the North Koreans are after – they warn the scheme is evolving, and that as operatives gain access to sensitive roles or become exposed, they may turn malicious and launch malware or ransomware attacks. In a press briefing after Chapman's sentencing, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro sent a direct message to corporate America: 'This is a code red.' 'Your tech sectors are being infiltrated by North Korea. And when big companies are lax and they're not doing their due diligence, they are putting America's security at risk,' she said. Experts say the scheme is too big to take down, powered by a regime with no shortage of compliant workers, aided by US facilitators recorded in every state except Hawaii. 'For everyone that we do catch and for every laptop farm that the FBI raids, it is an element of whack-a-mole,' said Gordenker, noting that the alias Breeyan Cornelius is still active and was last seen applying for a job at a large insurance company in May 2025. 'There is no silver bullet,' Gordenker said. 'This is an inherent risk in doing business... you run the risk of hiring a North Korean.'
