RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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A group of investors in Selena Gomez ’s troubled mental health startup Wondermind are suing the star and her company for fraud.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday (Aug. 13) and obtained by Billboard , alleges that Gomez, her mother Mandy Teefey and former Wondermind executive Danielle Pierson duped five men into investing $1.2 million in the company in 2022. The investors say it wasn’t until a bombshell article about Wondermind in The Cut last year that they learned “the sheer magnitude of the fraud that the defendants had foisted upon them.”
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“The information unearthed in this article proved not only that the company was, and is, in a state of financial calamity; it proved that the defendants’ representations about the company’s operations, personnel and financial prospects were a fiction,” reads the lawsuit. “There was no legitimate enterprise in the works, much less a lucrative one.”
Gomez, Teefey and Pierson co-founded Wondermind in 2021 with plans for a suite of mental health media initiatives, including a digital magazine, mobile app and podcast. According to the lawsuit, after launching with $12 million from friends and family, the company sought an additional $5 million in outside funds in 2022.
They allegedly pitched five investors: Brent Saunders , Marc Roberts , EJ Solimine , Andrew Resnick and Mark Peikin . These men say they were lured into contributing $1.2 million based on promises that Gomez would be actively involved as Wondermind’s head of marketing, thus leveraging her huge fanbase and 400 million Instagram followers.
Pierson allegedly told the investors that Wondermind had a “potential future valuation” of over $4 billion and that she’d generated $40 million a year at her prior media company, The Newsette. She also allegedly claimed the company had partnerships in place already with JPMorgan and Fidelity, as well as major ad deals and interest in cover story features on star musicians like Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Elton John and Camila Cabello.
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According to the investors, these pitches all turned out to be false. The Cut , which spoke to 14 current and former Wondermind employees, reported in September 2025 that Gomez had distanced herself from the company soon after it launched, and that finances were dire due in part to Teefey’s alleged substance abuse issues and erratic behavior. The Cut reported that Pierson, whose work at the Newsette has also come under scrutiny , left Wondermind in 2023 due to a power struggle with Teefey.
“The accounts in the Cut article collectively show that, from the outset, Wondermind had no plan for its future — much less a plan for achieving a multi-billion dollar valuation,” the lawsuit says.
The investors claim they asked Wondermind to return their money soon after the Cut article came out, and that Teefey allegedly promised to send the funds but never followed through — conduct that was “consistent with the yearslong scheme of deceit that the defendants have perpetrated,” according to the lawsuit.
Now, the five investors are seeking to claw back their money via the court system, as well as additional financial damages for the alleged wrongdoing. Reps for Wondermind and Gomez did not immediately return requests for comment on the claims.
At the time of the Cut article last year, Teefey denied allegations of company mismanagement and said Wondermind remained viable: “I started Wondermind because I wanted to help people with mental illness,” she said in a statement to the magazine. “It’s unfortunate that a few disgruntled employees with an ax to grind can spread lies about me and distort the truth. Even more disappointing that the media is willing to amplify their lies.”
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