NYC man says tele-psychotherapist ran a ‘cult’ — and duped him out of $200K

The victim claims he was brainwashed into believing his soul — and those of his relatives — would be doomed to eternal damnation if he didn’t obey demands for six-figure cash payments and pricey electronics

Independent, UK/December 16, 2024

By Justin Rohrlich

A New York City man claims he was scammed by a Romanian national posing as a psychotherapist, who was able to “effectively brainwash” him into believing his soul — and those of his relatives — would be doomed to eternal damnation if he didn’t obey his ongoing demands for six-figure cash payments and thousands of dollars in pricey electronics.

Over the course of four years, Bucharest psychology student Robert George Buliga was able to dupe Octavian Mihai from afar, conducting one-on-one sessions via Zoom and phone during which he “claimed to be providing medical care, but in reality stealthily analyzed Mr. Mihai’s disclosed vulnerabilities and exploited them,” according to a lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

“Buliga deceitfully inserted himself into Mr. Mihai’s life as a psychotherapist, and then capitalized on this position of intimate trust to exploit Mr. Mihai’s emotional openness and steal his money,” states the complaint, which was filed December 13 in New York State Supreme Court. “Mr. Mihai sought Buliga’s counsel to navigate his emotions, mistakenly confiding in someone who was not a licensed professional.”

The complaint describes Buliga as a “charlatan” who ran not a legitimate practice, but “in fact, a cult.” It says he insisted on absolute compliance with his directives and isolating him from friends and family while threatening “dire emotional and spiritual consequences” if he ever left his care.

In one instance, the complaint contends, Buliga said Mihai had “wronged” him in an “unseen world,” and that unless he forked over $12,400 to “make amends,” he would “stop ‘treating’ [him] and abandon his soul to purgatory.”

All told, Buliga “extorted” nearly $200,000 from Mihai “under the false pretext of caring for his psychological needs,” according to the complaint.

“No ‘therapy’ was rendered,” it says.

Buliga did not respond on Monday to multiple requests for comment, and rejected numerous phone calls made to his office. An address for Buliga’s practice listed in the complaint is that of a building in downtown Bucharest, Romania, that, as of May 2024, appears abandoned.

Mihai found Buliga in March 2019, through his website, the complaint states.

Buliga advertises himself as a music therapist and “spiritual guide,” and while his worldview is difficult to pin down precisely, he promises to free patients from their troubles through a combination of video chats, webinars, and a board game he and his wife invented, called “Melinda.”

“If a man blocks his male energy through a position of the body far from an axis inclined to the front, through defective breathing and through a series of saboteurs, he blocks his aspiration towards freedom (in the spiritual sense),” Buliga wrote in a blog post last year. “Once blocked, your ability to express masculinity weakens. It’s bad for you and the women around you. You change their destiny, their path full of femininity... Literally they (women) will take over your qualities. They will become androids; women with a strong feminine instinct will leave you.”

In March 2019, Buliga “falsely represented to Mr. Mihai that he was qualified in ‘the profession of psychologist with the right to free practice,’” according to Mihai’s complaint. But, the victim claims, this was not true.

Buliga has never been admitted to practice anywhere in the U.S., and, during his treatment of Mihai, was “only a [psychology] student” at a university in Bucharest, the complaint alleges.

Once Mihai was his patient, Buliga “subjected [him] to egregious psychological manipulation,” according to the complaint. He spent endless hours in conversation with Mihai “in order to tease-out his weaknesses and exploit them,” keeping Mihai coming back again and again for “spiritual updates” and “communication training,” which the complaint says “consisted only of Buliga generating an invoice and demanding payment.”

Buliga separated Mihai and others from their support networks, insisting that they needed to “obey him 100 percent to save their souls,” the complaint states.

“He would harangue them into believing that they needed to isolate completely from family and friends or their souls were in danger,” according to the complaint. “When Mr. Mihai resisted making payments, Defendant Buliga threatened his already-shaky psyche with dire emotional and spiritual consequences unless the ‘training’ and ‘updates’ continued. As further proof, when Mr. Mihai informed Defendant Buliga that he was ending the patient-’psychotherapist’ relationship, Buliga demanded an additional $20,000 and told Mr. Mihai he would suffer dire spiritual and emotional consequences if he did not pay.”

On top of everything else, Buliga “coerced Mihai to purchase electronic equipment for him in exchange for psychotherapy services,” the complaint goes on, putting Mihai’s total outlay on high-tech gear for Buliga at $7,254.34. There were no further details on what products he had to buy.

Mihai claims he is out $194,142.08, paid into “personal accounts of Robert and [wife] Diana Buliga to avoid taxes, and were recorded on bogus invoices for services that were never provided.”

He has since recovered sufficiently from a “clear abuse of the falsely-created therapeutic relationship and a dreadful racket of exploitation,” and is now able “to seek legal redress for the fraud, psychological manipulation, and financial exploitation experienced during this period,” the complaint says.

The lawsuit alleges fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, medical malpractice and unjust enrichment, and demands undetermined compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

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