Bupe.me and Church Ekklasia Sozo: Inside the Telehealth Opioid Nonprofit at the Center of a Federal Buprenorphine Prescribing Case

Most of the telehealth companies that treat opioid use disorder look like what they are: clinics that happen to see patients over video and phone. Church Ekklasia Sozo, Inc., better known by its consumer brand Bupe.me, was structured differently. It was registered as a nonprofit church, it prescribed a single controlled medication at very high volume, and, according to federal prosecutors and investigative reporting, it ran on the prescribing credentials of clinicians who were not the ones deciding to write the prescriptions. One person connected to the operation has now been criminally sentenced, and other threads remain under investigation.

What Church Ekklasia Sozo and Bupe.me were

Church Ekklasia Sozo, Inc. was a North Carolina nonprofit that its founder, Douglas Smith, registered as a church. Its stated purpose combined religious language with opioid work: according to reporting on its founding documents, the organization existed to preach the gospel, ordain ministers, and provide programs to help fight opioid addiction. In practice, the public-facing business was Bupe.me, a telemedicine service that prescribed buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder, and later operated under the name Rural Opioid Treatment Program.

By the accounts in a Post and Courier investigation, the business grew quickly. Revenue rose from about $700,000 in 2019 to roughly $5.5 million in 2022, and by late 2021 the company reported serving close to 5,000 patients across more than 25 states. For a telehealth operation focused on a single generic medication, that is substantial scale.

The founder: Doug Smith

Douglas Smith, who founded and led the operation, is a former Florida physician. According to reporting, he lost his Florida medical license in 2009 in connection with overprescribing, and he has said he set the company up as a church in part to take advantage of tax exemptions. The Post and Courier reported that Smith is under a federal grand jury investigation tied to alleged financial crimes, including tax evasion, and that the government contends he owes more than $26 million. That reporting also described company money spent on personal items.

It is important to be precise about status. As of the reporting available, Smith has not been criminally charged in connection with the prescribing operation, and the tax and financial matters are described as an investigation, not a conviction. Those are allegations that have not been proven in court.

How the telemedicine prescribing worked

The mechanics are what drew federal scrutiny. Patients seeking buprenorphine would complete an online questionnaire. A staff member would then reach out to arrange payment, and a prescription would be generated using a clinician's DEA registration number, the credential that authorizes a practitioner to prescribe controlled substances and that a pharmacy relies on to fill them.

The Justice Department said that in the case of Dr. Henry Ronald Emery Jr., the company's medical director, administrative personnel used his DEA registration to issue more than 25,000 buprenorphine prescriptions to patients in multiple states, and that Emery had no personal interaction with those patients before the prescriptions went out in his name. In other words, the signature that is supposed to certify a real clinical judgment was, according to prosecutors, detached from any patient encounter.

The DEA registrations and the security fobs

The Post and Courier reported that Emery was not the only clinician whose credentials were involved. According to that investigation, the company kept a roster of more than 20 doctors and nurse practitioners with DEA numbers and controlled the electronic security fobs used to send digital prescriptions, and at least 20 providers had prescriptions issued in their names for patients they never treated. Some of those prescriptions, the reporting said, went to states where the named provider was not licensed to practice.

The same reporting, citing records and sources, indicated that some prescriptions issued in Emery's name originated from a computer linked to the company's president, Suzanne Berman. Berman has not been charged, and that account is an allegation drawn from reporting rather than a proven fact.

The one criminal conviction so far

The clearest legal outcome to date involves Emery. He was indicted in September 2023 on one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances outside the bounds of professional medical practice and 11 counts of distribution. The Drug Enforcement Administration's Atlanta Field Division and IRS Criminal Investigation's Charlotte Field Office investigated, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina prosecuted the case.

On August 13, 2026, Emery, 54, was sentenced to six months in federal prison followed by one year of supervised release for his role in the conspiracy, and the court ordered him to repay the $452,830 he had received. A sentence, once imposed, is a settled outcome. Emery had argued in the run-up to trial that his credentials were exploited without his authorization, but the case resolved with a conviction and a prison term.

The investigations and lawsuits around the company

Beyond the criminal case, the operation generated a web of civil and regulatory disputes. The company sued CVS after the pharmacy chain declined to fill its prescriptions. A former consultant, Edmund Brown, sued Smith and the nonprofit, alleging he was pushed out after raising concerns about its practices. State medical boards, including in Alabama, examined prescriptions issued in the names of providers connected to the company. And, as noted, the founder faces a federal financial investigation. TeleRanked ranks and rates providers, and does not represent any party in these matters; the disputes are summarized here from public reporting.

How this differs from legitimate telehealth for opioid use disorder

None of this means that treating opioid use disorder online is illegitimate. Telehealth has expanded access to buprenorphine, which is one of the most effective tools for treating opioid addiction, and many reputable programs deliver that care responsibly. What prosecutors and reporters described here is the opposite of a genuine clinical relationship: a prescription generated in a clinician's name without that clinician evaluating, or in some accounts even knowing about, the patient.

Legitimate telehealth for opioid use disorder starts with the patient, involves an actual clinical evaluation by a clinician who is accountable for the prescription, and produces prescriptions tied to that evaluation and to ongoing care. The distance between that model and the conduct described in this case is the whole point of the federal interest.

What this means for patients

This is general information, not legal or medical advice. If you are looking for online treatment for opioid use disorder, this story is a reason to check for the markers of real care, not a reason to avoid telehealth. A few practical signals are worth noticing:

• You can identify the specific clinician responsible for your prescription and actually communicate with that person.
• There is a genuine evaluation of your history and situation, not just a form that produces a prescription after payment.
• The program provides ongoing follow-up, which is how buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder is generally managed.
• The prescriber is licensed in your state, and the program is transparent about who is treating you.