A Jacksonville man accused of supplying performance-enhancing drugs to a onetime Olympic athlete used a fake, apparently female, virtual medical persona he’d cultivated for years, a federal prosecutor is arguing.
Paul Askew is scheduled to plead guilty May 26 to a sports-doping conspiracy apparently centered on supplying banned testosterone injections that damaged track star Marvin Bracy-Williams’ career.
A prosecutor’s court filing says Askew administered a first shot to a track athlete identified only as M.B.W. after being introduced to the athlete via text message from “Dr. Toi,” a fictional medical professional.
‘“Dr. Toi’ was the creation of [the] Defendant, using altered social media photographs of … the spouse of a professional football player,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Flanigan wrote in a “factual basis” explanation of the case filed with U.S. Magistrate Judge Philip R. Lammens in Ocala’s federal court.
Askew, 46, pleaded not guilty in February. His maximum potential sentence is 10 years behind bars.
The document offered a new narrative apparently linking Bracy-Williams, who competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics, to Askew, who began serving a 38-month state prison sentence for fraud a few months after being federally indicted in September 2025. Bracy-Williams has not been charged with committing a crime.
The prosecutor’s account said Askew had invented Dr. Toi years earlier, although the reason is unclear, and connected virtually with someone M.B.W. knew.
That person, identified as M.R.E., was an older track and field veteran M.B.W. asked for advice after a disappointing performance in the U.S. Track & Field Outdoor Championships in Oregon in July 2023, a key athletic meet where Bracy-Williams was eliminated in an early round of competition for a 100-meter race.
“M.R.E. had regularly messaged ‘Dr. Toi’ for years prior to the July 10, 2023 exchange,” Flanigan’s court filing said. “Defendant used the Dr. Toi persona to convince M.R.E. that … the top track and field athletes were all taking illegal substances provided by Dr. Toi to boost their performances at races. In fact, Defendant had no knowledge that the top track and field athletes were taking illegal substances…”
After being asked by the younger athlete for advice to improve race times, “M.R.E. specifically requested ‘Dr. Toi’ provide the athlete with testosterone,” the prosecutor wrote, saying Askew was introduced as Dr. Toi’s associate.
The filing didn’t include M.R.E.’s name but in January, the British newspaper Guardian reported on Bracy-Williams and described retired sprinter Monzavous “Rae” Edwards as “the man with the contact number to a female dealer who worked for an alleged steroid kingpin, Paul Askew.” The newspaper quoted Edwards as saying Bracy-Williams “felt like he had to” take performance-enhancing substances to compete at the highest levels. Edwards has also not been charged with a crime.
The prosecutor’s filing said M.B.W. lived in Jacksonville when he had his first testosterone injection in 2023 and paid Askew $1,200 cash for administering that at the athlete’s home. The document described other injections in months that followed, with the athlete agreeing to pay $11,800 for treatments between October 2023 and March 2024, plus bonuses if M.B.W. had success at contests that included trials for the 2024 U.S. Olympic team.
Instead, the document said the athlete “botched” an attempt to inject himself in early 2024 and admitted the mishap to his coach, who reported the incident to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The agency, which enforces anti-doping rules that sports groups are committed to uphold, later imposed a 45-month sanction on Bracy-Williams that eliminated him from top-level competitions like the Olympics.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Feds say Florida man channeled ‘Dr. Toi’ in Olympic doping scheme
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
