In 2022, Presshub, a network belonging to Freedom House Romania, documented the establishment of the Butterfly Sanctuary centre to rescue victims of human trafficking. Information from open sources and obtained from public institutions used in our article “Phantom Center for the Recovery of Trafficked Women” indicated that, located in Zolt, Timiș County, the Butterfly Sanctuary had been receiving significant funds since 2019–2020 from the American funder, the Uncaged Association dedicated to anti-trafficking efforts, but in practice had neither the necessary permits nor any actual activity.
At the time, the Atlanta-based funder had placed its trust in Beniamin Lup, president of the WorldTeach Romania Association, who managed the centre. The 2020 report noted that “Uncaged’s European Director… has actively rescued more than 770 trafficking survivors”. The figure, verified with the help of the National Agency Against Human Trafficking (ANITP), was completely implausible.
The Butterfly Centre’s headquarters—buildings, forests, and inventory—was purchased in 2020 and 2021 by WorldTeach Romania from Ziegler 2009 Ltd. for a declared amount of $1,800,000. Subsequently, the U.S. funder obtained verified data indicating the actual amount was $1,300,000—half a million dollars less. Other unresolved questions also mar the transaction.
Beniamin Lup sued Freedom House Romania and Presshub over the article and lost in the first instance. The Bucharest Court of Appeals found in Judgment 1654/6.12.2024 of Case 1551/30/2022 that “the statements made by the report’s authors were not intended to discredit the plaintiffs, but rather to provide information of public interest, in a manner specific to journalistic language, supported by a concrete factual basis”.
Criminal Complaint for Fraud against Beniamin Lup
The American organisation began to have suspicions regarding the management of funds sent to the association in Romania and recently filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Făget Court (to which the village of Zolt belongs). In response to Presshub’s inquiries, submitted under Law 544/2001 of access to the public information, prosecutors replied in document 172/E/I-36/2026: “Our institution has received a complaint filed by the UNCAGED organisation as plaintiff, which led to the opening of a criminal case registered with the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Făget Court under No. 280/306/P/325. The complaint alleges the crimes of forgery, use of forged documents, fraudulent management, fraud, and criminal proceedings have been initiated in the case”.
Between 2019 and 2024, the Uncaged organisation transferred over $4.5 million to the WorldTeach Association’s account with the aim of equipping a recovery centre for women rescued from human traffickers. There, the victims were to receive support, medical and psychological care, protection, training for reintegration into society, and comfort.
Additionally, following a 2024 amendment to its statute, the centre could organise vocational training for vulnerable individuals, courses, professional training programs, conferences, etc.
From confidential sources, we learned what the allegations entail. The plaintiff alleges that Beniamin Lup had asked $240,000 for training projects in the Republic of Moldova, a sum transferred to the company Pro Lead Training S.R.L., owned by Beniamin Lup as sole shareholder and administrator. The expense reports were deemed false, and the funder suspected that the training sessions were fictitious.
For example, Dănceni City Hall (Republic of Moldova) declared to the Americans that the WorldTeach Association did not conduct any training sessions nor collaborate with the city hall. Pro Lead Training was liquidated and dissolved in 2026. However, the head of ANAF Timiș explained to us that financial data can be recovered by prosecutors using specific methods.
Significant amounts of cash were withdrawn by Beniamin Lup between the summer of 2023 and the fall of 2024 from the association’s accounts under the pretext of unapproved donations for the poor. The money, totalling nearly $124,000, as well as over $600,000 withdrawn between 2019 and 2024, was justified with non-compliant receipts, the plaintiff said. Several expense reports submitted over time are suspected of containing forged signatures, which is why the plaintiff is requesting a graphoscopic analysis.
The purchase of the property from Zolt raises several questions. The company Ziegler 2009, which sold the property, allegedly received a commission of 81,000 euros through the company Butterfly Internațional S.R.L., established in May 2020 and owned by Beniamin Lup’s last wife, Rodica Guțan, who died in September 2024. An undeclared conflict of interest. In February 2025, Butterfly International was dissolved.
The criminal complaint further notes that the $500,000 difference, presented to the Americans by the head of WorldTeach as having been paid to the seller Ziegler in 2009 and included in the total of $1,800,000, was allegedly illegally split between the seller and the buyer.
All these facts are now being investigated by prosecutors under Articles 322, 323, 242, and 244 of the Romanian Criminal Code.
Presshub reviewed the association’s purchase contracts for the acquisition of the Butterfly Centre’s premises and land. In the contract signed on December 22, 2021, for the purchase of fields, forests, forest land, and buildings in Zolt, totalling 810,000 euros, an unusual transaction appears. The seller agrees to initially receive a payment of 566,959 euros, with the remaining 243,040 euros to be paid later, within ten days.
What is strange is that the administrator of the Ziegler selling company does not use the right to a statutory mortgage, as provided for in Article 2386 of the Romanian Civil Code, a mortgage that would cover the debt in case the buyer fails to pay. Furthermore, the seller’s representative accepts that proof of payment be provided “through bank documents or a Self-Declaration”. 243,000 euros, a large sum owed, without any guarantees?
Dream financing
As of October 2024, the American organisation Uncaged no longer funds the WorldTeach Association and has dismissed Beniamin Lup from his position as “European Director.”
Through 2024, the U.S. sponsor sent approximately one million dollars annually to the WorldTeach Association’s account. This was extremely generous funding for an NGO in Romania.
Until 2018, the WorldTeach Association operated on donations ranging from $95,000 to a maximum of $175,000. In 2019, according to the data on the Ministry of Finance’s website, the amount rose to nearly $450,000, and in 2020 to approximately $950,000.
In December 2021, the association had $1,277,857 in its account, expenses of $354,843, a profit of $923,014, and 3 employees.
In 2022, after purchasing the property from Zolt, WorldTeach still had $773,501 in revenue, $650,806 in expenses, a smaller surplus of $122,695, and 13 employees.
In 2023, the organisation’s revenue in Romania amounts to $964,708, expenses to $937,088, the surplus to $27,619, and it has 15 employees.
In 2024, revenue exceeded one million dollars, specifically $1,157,189; expenses also rose to $1,126,662, leaving a profit of just $29,902, and the organisation reports 20 employees.
After funding was discontinued in the previous October, in 2025, the WorldTeach Association’s revenue is only $15,750, expenses are $119,164, and debts amount to $149,947. There are still 2 employees.
The conversion was made from lei to USD at the Romanian National Bank’s average exchange rate for that year.
But who is Beniamin Lup? “Beniamin Lup’s actions as head of the WorldTeach Association and director for Europe at Uncaged have always been overshadowed by his declared affiliation with the Baptist community. Furthermore, he has implied in his public biographies that he is a pastor. In the Republic of Moldova, he presented himself as the ‘head of the Baptist churches in Romania,’ as Polina Antonieva, the mother of the late wife, Rodica Guțan, told us. Uncaged, the main U.S. funder, is led by Kim Westfall, a person with strong ties to the neo-Protestant Baptist denomination, which bolstered trust in the Romanian partner”, wrote Presshub in the article “The Masks of Mr. Lup”.
Baptist pastors in Timișoara have signed a statement declaring that Beniamin Lup was never a pastor. Two criminal investigations are underway in Romania and the Republic of Moldova regarding the bizarre deaths of Beniamin Lup’s wives. Numerous academic titles and memberships in major organisations or political parties paint an exaggerated and ambiguous picture, as evidenced by several articles published in the press.
In 2026, advertisements appeared on various Facebook pages indicating a complete shift in the mission of the WorldTeach Association. For example, on May 1 and May 25, customers are invited to Zolt on the Facebook page of Dorina Cozma, an employee of the organisation, for entertainment, “tradition, taste, and flavour,” alongside images of the Butterfly Centre, featuring ponies, a fitness room, and a ping-pong area.
Over 20 lawsuits and complaints have been filed by Lup in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and the U.S. A series of civil lawsuits have been filed between Uncaged and WorldTeach since 2024. Several are administrative disputes regarding amendments to the Romanian organisation’s statute.
Noteworthy is an April 2024 amendment to the WorldTeach Association’s statute, which suggests that the U.S. funder sought to protect the property from Zolt. The minutes of the judgment in case 490/832/2024 pending before the Făget Court of First Instance state that “The General Assembly of Founding Members is the supreme governing body, composed of all members of the association, the sole governing body that makes decisions regarding the disposal of properties belonging to the Association” and “The Board of Directors is elected for an indefinite term and has no voting rights regarding the disposal of the Association’s assets.” The General Assembly is composed of Lup Beniamin, Molodoi Alexandra-Florina, Lup Liana-Cristiana, Westfall Kimberly Noelle, Westfall Robert Vallen, Walls Ryan Christopher, Mansfield Stephen Lee, Țuțac Ionel, Bojin Mihăiță, and Căpitanu Vasile.
Previously, in 2020, also by court order, Beniamin Lup had resigned “both from his status as a founding member and from his position as chairman of the board of directors,” which is unusual, as founders remain founders even if they are no longer active members. A new Board was formed in 2020, consisting of President Molodoi Alexandra Florina, Vice President Lup Liana Cristiana (Beniamin Lup’s daughter from his first marriage), and Secretary Guțan Rodica (his wife). We do not know when Beniamin Lup officially re-registered as a member of the association.
In 2021, the organisation’s headquarters moved to Zolt. However, creditors, such as PPC, the electricity provider, are currently pursuing the debtor at the original headquarters in Oțelu Roșu.
There are other pending lawsuits, typically filed by Beniamin Lup, regarding “claims” seeking hundreds of thousands of euros in damages. He has also sued Kimberly Westfall, president of Uncaged, both in Romania and in the U.S., seeking millions of dollars. In the U.S., there are two more lawsuits filed against Adrian Niculae and Vasilica Rusu, for the “crime” of speaking with journalists.
Beniamin Lup has already lost several cases, such as those in which Valentin Malanca was harassed—he too was a source for articles written by journalists from Presshub, Adevărul, Libertatea, Click, and Sursa de Vest.
Presshub has published several well-researched articles about the unexplained deaths under similar circumstances of two of Lup’s three wives, Eugenia Lup from Romania and Rodica Guțan from the Republic of Moldova, at the young ages of 42 and 45, respectively. The investigation can be read here.
For the articles published by the Presshub network, Beniamin Lup has sued us—the editorial team or just the author—in a broad SLAPP-style harassment campaign, intended to intimidate, using the justice system as a tool against press freedom. Some of our lawsuits have already been ongoing for four years and are far from over.
A European alert regarding a threat to press freedom through judicial harassment concerning the Presshub network and me was issued this year under the title “Investigative Journalist Brîndușa Armanca and PressHub Face Multiple Defamation Lawsuits.” Initiator: The Platform for the Promotion of the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists, under the auspices of the Council of Europe. More than 65 media outlets picked up and published the alert.
The alert can be read here.
