Eli Lilly announced that it had uncovered a long-running scheme to steal more than $200 million in kickbacks from the company’s diabetes drug Trulicity, and accused several major Pentecostal church bishops of fraud.
The company filed a 66-page civil lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Miami.
Here’s how the plan worked, according to Lilly: A Florida mail-order pharmacy called Drug Place had been purchasing large quantities of Trulicity over the years through authorized distributors, claiming the drugs were being dispensed to patients who were members of a church. However, Lilly alleges that Drug Place was in fact collecting fraudulent kickbacks from Lilly while simultaneously selling Trulicity on the secondary market.
According to the complaint, Drug Place worked with Community Health Initiatives, an affiliate of the Church of Christ, to help church members obtain expensive prescription drugs at lower prices. Lilly alleges that DrugPlace served as the program’s pharmacy benefits manager (PBM), handling prescription drug billing and rebate negotiations with drug companies on the program’s behalf.
According to the complaint, DrugPlace and Community Health operate from the same address in Tennessee.
Lilly alleged that these organizations used members of Christian churches to support false kickback claims, and said many of the patients involved in those claims did not exist or could not be verified.
The church, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, describes itself on its website as a “worldwide movement of the Pentecostal faith” with millions of members around the world. The church itself is not named as a defendant, but several bishops are accused in the lawsuit.
Lilly said in the filing that the plan has been in place for at least six years. Through data analysis of rebate claims, the company learned of suspected fraud in 2025.
The analysis revealed an unusual pattern, according to the complaint. All Trulicity prescriptions submitted through the program reflected the same quantity and 30-day supply period, with very few refills or charge cancellations. Additionally, the rebate claim included only Trulicity, rather than the broader range of drugs typically found in the legitimate patient population.
To justify the bulk order of Trulicity, Lilly said Drug Place claimed the church had 7 million members, 2.5 million of whom were eligible to enroll in community health programs. However, a 2025 Pew Religion in America study cited in the complaint estimates the total number of members of the Church of God in Christ to be approximately 1.9 million.
Lilly said other drug makers have also been defrauded by the rebate scheme, but declined to name them.
Lilly sued both Drug Place and Community Health, alleging that both companies profited significantly from the purchase and resale of Trulicity because they collected both the kickback payments and the proceeds from reselling each box.
The complaint alleges that DrugPlace submitted kickback claims for “hundreds of thousands of boxes of Trulicity,” but does not say how much profit the organization allegedly made from reselling the drug.
Lilly is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
The company also accused church leaders of supporting and profiting from the kickback program. Reedus C. Smith III of Jacksonville, Fla., the church’s health and business affairs director. Jerry Maynard Sr., a church pastor and businessman living in Ashland City, Tennessee. His son, Jerry Maynard II, lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a church minister, business consultant, and former member of the Metro Nashville Davidson Council. Maynard Sr.’s daughter, Misha Maynard, lives in Watertown, Tennessee and is a church pastor.
The lawsuit also identifies Smith as CEO of Community Health, another company that recruits doctors to provide medical care to church members.
Maynard Sr. promoted Community Health to church members, his son was its board president, and did legal work for the drug place, according to the complaint. Misha Maynard is vice president of operations for Community Health, according to the filing.
CNBC reached out to the individual defendants named in this story, as well as Drug Place, Community Health, and the church (which is not a defendant), but did not receive a response.
Additionally, the lawsuit also names Drug Place co-owner and president Paul Joshua Leight. Kevin Michael Singer, co-owner and vice president of DrugPlace.
A Lilly spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC that the company “filed this lawsuit to stop fraud and protect patient access to medicines.”
“Upon learning that the defendants had been discovered, Drug Place closed its Nashville dispensary and began liquidating its assets, an action consistent with covering its tracks,” the statement said.
