Eli Lilly accuses church bishops, businessmen of fraud in Trulicity drug rebate scheme, including former Metro Nashville Council Member Dr. Jerry Maynard II
Eli Lilly accuses church bishops, businessmen of fraud in $200 million Trulicity drug rebate scheme.
Eli Lilly has disclosed in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday that a rebate fraud scheme cost it more than $200 million. The scheme has been going on at least six years, Lilly said in the filing. It learned of the alleged fraud in 2025, it said, through a data analysis of rebate claims.
The company alleges several bishops and a leader of the Church of God in Christ, a major Pentecostal church, were part of the plot. The church is not named as a defendant in the suit. Lilly alleges that organizations used members of the church to support false rebate claims.
“The company also sued church leaders who allegedly assisted in and profited from the rebate scheme: Readus C. Smith III, of Jacksonville, Florida, who is secretary-general of health and business for the church; Jerry Maynard Sr., of Ashland City, Tennessee, a church bishop and businessman; his son Jerry Maynard II, of Nashville, Tennessee, a church pastor, business consultant and former member of the Metro Nashville Davidson Council; and Maynard Sr.’s daughter Misha Maynard, of Watertown, Tennessee, a church pastor.”
“Maynard Sr. promoted Community Health to church members, the suit said, and his son is its board chairman and did legal work for DrugPlace. Misha Maynard is Community Health’s vice president of operations, according to the filing.”
In a statement to CNBC, a Lilly spokesperson said the company “brought this case to stop fraud and protect patients’ access to its medicines.”
“When the defendants learned that they had been discovered, DrugPlace shuttered its Nashville pharmacy and began liquidating assets—conduct consistent with covering its tracks,” the statement said.