Selena Gomez and her mother are being accused of defrauding investors with their mental health start-up Wondermind.
Gomez, her mother Mandy Teefey and Daniella Pierson are co-founders of the mental health platform that touts itself as promoting “mental fitness.” All three are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday in a federal court in Delaware.
The plaintiffs are limited liability companies, Wondermind SRS 44 LLC and Bespoke Wondermind LLC. They claimed they invested about $1.2 million in the brand, which was launched in 2021, and were “falsely represented” that the brand “had the infrastructure, leadership, and resources necessary for the company to launch into a profitable, one-of-its-kind mental health and wellness platform.”
They said the company claimed it “was performing well and poised for success,” but that wasn’t true.
According to court documents obtained by , the plaintiffs claimed they were told Gomez would be “actively building the company as its head of marketing,” due to her celebrity status, which would include advertising deals and television promotions and her massive social media following. The suit claims the “Only Murders in the Building” actress had “a contract obligating her to perform and then ignored it.”
According to the outlet, the lawsuit claimed the company’s leaders told potential investors it was valued at around $95 million and was looking for a $5 million investment. The NYT said that Gomez, Teefey and Pierson controlled about 90% of Wondermind’s shares and that Gomez’s name could help it reach a value of over $4 billion.
The plaintiffs also allege the brand promised to create a partnership with J.P. Morgan and Fidelity and offer mental health and wellness services to their employees and a “groundbreaking app” would be developed.
“The partnerships did not exist. The initiatives never materialized. The app was never built,” court documents allege, according to .
“There was no legitimate enterprise in the works, much less a lucrative one,” the plaintiffs continued. They also claimed that the brand didn’t fulfill “even its most basic obligations, such as timely paying its employees and vendors.”
The lawsuit claimed that when the brand “quietly collapsed around them, not one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors.” It wasn’t until published an article in 2025 that they learned of the company’s “utter financial and operational disarray.”
It said the article proved that Wondermind was “in a state of financial calamity.”
The plaintiffs also claimed Teefey’s “long-running substance abuse problem impeded her capacity to administer” the company.
“When the Defendants would provide updates — either by email or on a phone call — they concealed the significant operational and financial issues at the Company. Indeed, the Defendants affirmatively misrepresented that the Company was performing well,” the suit continued.
The suit also claims Teefey reached out to investor Andrew Resnick and said that he and the other plaintiffs should pause the lawsuit as Wondermind would be setting up an escrow account to help return their investments.
However, documents say she “disappeared” and that the “bizarre interaction reinforces the lengths to which the defendants have gone — and will continue to go — to conceal their fraud, lull the plaintiffs, and evade accountability.”
Then in April, the plaintiffs said she told investors via email that she “thought we had returned your investment,” but Wondermind “had returned nothing.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a full jury trial, according to .
In a statement to the NYT, Pierson said she “categorically denies the allegations against her and welcomes the opportunity to present concrete documentation and financial records that establish the facts.” She also denied claims that she used the funds provided by investors for personal use.