During the 202 NFL season, DeAndre Hopkins was popped for a violation of the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy. The star wide receiver, who was playing for the Arizona Cardinals at the time, was suspended by the league for six games.
Over the weekend, DeAndre Hopkins posted a message on social media in response to an Instagram post by Tony Robinson, a financial well-being influencer, accusing Steve Keim of being connected to an alleged fraud scheme involving Mohamed Coulibaly, a 24-year-old entrepreneur who was found dead in a pool in New Jersey last week.
“I got set up when I played for his team and lost 13 million,” Hopkins wrote in a since-deleted comment. “Skeme Slime was my GM, contaminated drug test go figure how that happened.”
Steve Keim also responded to Robinson’s post, saying Robinson had personally apologized for linking his name to the fraud scheme. Robinson has made several postings regarding Keim but has never publicly acknowledged any apology to Keim.
Steve Keim issues statement refuting DeAndre Hopkins’ allegation
On Tuesday, Keim denied the allegations in a public statement, writing, “DeAndre Hopkins recently published and then deleted a statement falsely suggesting that I was responsible for contaminating or manipulating the drug test associated with his 2022 NFL suspension. That accusation is completely false.
“I did not contaminate, alter, manipulate, interfere with, or cause anyone else to interfere with DeAndre’s drug test or its results. I did not ‘set him up’ for a suspension, and I had no involvement in causing the test result that led to his suspension.
“Accusing someone of deliberately interfering with an NFL drug test is an extraordinarily serious allegation,” Keim continued. “It attacks my integrity, my professional reputation, and the work I spent decades building in the National Football League. The fact that the statement was later deleted does not undo the damage caused by publishing it to a large public audience.
“I have retained counsel, Raees Mohamed, Esq., to aggressively address this matter and to protect my reputation and legal rights. The relevant evidence is being reviewed and preserved, and this matter will be handled through the appropriate channels.”
Keim also addressed his alleged involvement in an e-commerce scheme
As for the report that Steve Keim was reportedly a business associate of alleged scammer Mohamed Coulibaly, Keim addressed those accusations as well as Hopkins’ claim during an appearance on the Wingo Network Podcast.
“All NFL drug tests are administered by the National Football League,” Keim said. “And the only thing teams and players get are the results. It’s impossible for a general manager or anybody within an organization to contaminate or affect a drug test. This is baseless; it’s irresponsible, and trust me, my lawyers will be in touch.”
Steve Keim added that he felt he was a victim of Coulibaly, just like multiple former NFL players.
“I met Mohamed last July and ended up getting offered an opportunity to work with him,” he said. “In turn, I ended up bringing eight friends of mine into buy stores and two of my family members. … As we got into the spring, into March and April, people that I had involved in the company were coming to me that they weren’t getting payments. I wasn’t getting paid back because of my seven stores that I bought. So things got extremely toxic.
“I got very, very animated with him and let him know that this is unacceptable. I flew to Philadelphia to meet with him to make sure that there are funds in his bank account. … And long story short, we were scammed.”