I would say that it sounds like he was her sponsor, and you clearly don't understand the process. It's hard to tell from just this post whether she was trying to keep things to herself for good reasons or for cagey ones. You might have pushed too hard and without enough of an understanding of the situation.

(Edit) : Okay, your follow-up posts paint a deeper picture. I can't take sides from hearing only one person's explanation of the issue, but it does sound pretty suspect.