{"id":827861,"date":"2026-08-27T19:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827861\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T19:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:06:10","slug":"selena-gomez-asks-judge-to-dismiss-absurd-fraud-lawsuit-over-wondermind-mental-health-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827861\/","title":{"rendered":"Selena Gomez asks judge to dismiss \u2018absurd\u2019 fraud lawsuit over Wondermind mental health startup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Selena Gomez is fighting back against a federal lawsuit alleging she defrauded investors<\/a> in Wondermind, the mental health startup she co-founded with her mother.<\/p>\n

In a motion filed in Delaware federal court on Wednesday, Gomez\u2019s lawyers asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by investors of Wondermind, who allege they were misled into investing nearly $1.2 million in the 2021 start-up after being made false promises about the company\u2019s leadership, resources, and infrastructure for years. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed for common-law fraud, breach of contract, and securities fraud, names Gomez, her mother, Mandy Teefey, and their former business partner, Daniella Pierson. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion that Selena engaged in \u2018fraud\u2019 or any other wrongdoing is absurd \u2014 and in addition to filing our motion we are exploring other avenues of relief for Ms. Gomez including sanctions against plaintiffs for improperly including her,\u201d Mathew S. Rosengart, an attorney for Gomez, said in a statement to NBC News. <\/p>\n

Wondermind and Teefey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pierson, who has previously denied any wrongdoing<\/a>, also did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint \u2014 filed on Aug. 13 in federal court in Delaware by Wondermind SRS 44 LLC and Bespoke Wondermind SPV I LLC, limited liability companies that invested in the startup \u2014 the three founders allegedly told investors the sprawling \u201cmental fitness\u201d company would include a phone app, advertising deals and celebrity-driven content with Gomez \u201cintimately involved\u201d as head of marketing. <\/p>\n

Instead, the complaint alleges that many of those initiatives never happened, that investors received false updates, and that they were kept in the dark about Wondermind\u2019s mismanagement and descent into financial turmoil. It alleges investors became aware of the company\u2019s disarray after two bombshell stories by Forbes and The Cut. <\/p>\n

Gomez\u2019s attorneys, however, argue in the motion that the lawsuit does not specify any false statements the singer made personally to investors and that she was not even a member of the board. The motion added that Gomez never agreed to manage Wondermind and did not hold a minority stake in the company.<\/p>\n

The \u201cvague, generalized, and contradictory allegations concerning Selena Gomez demonstrate that Ms. Gomez could not possibly have engaged in any \u2018fraud\u2019 (she did not), is not liable to Plaintiffs (she is not) and, as a matter of law, must be dismissed from this lawsuit,\u201d the motion states.<\/p>\n

The motion notes that Teefy and Pierson handled management as Wondermind\u2019s co-CEOs and board members, and Gomez was retained \u201cas a consultant and conferred on her title of Chief Impact Officer.\u201d <\/p>\n

It notes that one of the few communications cited in the lawsuit that directly involved Gomez was a December 2022 email from Pierson discussing Wondermind\u2019s growth. Gomez was copied on the email, according to the court filings, and her lawyers argue that there is no allegation she knew anything in it was false.<\/p>\n

The motion asks the judge to dismiss all four claims brought against Gomez with prejudice.<\/p>\n

Rosengart added in a statement that the \u201cmotion to dismiss demonstrates that plaintiffs never should have dragged Selena Gomez into this case as the claims against her are completely meritless if not frivolous.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to NBC News earlier this month<\/a>, Pierson says she categorically denied the allegations and said she \u201cwelcomes the opportunity to present concrete documentation and financial records that establish the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, she has never used investor funds for personal expenses. Quite the opposite: Daniella invested her own money into the business and did not draw a salary from the company,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Selena Gomez is fighting back against a federal lawsuit alleging she defrauded investors in Wondermind, the mental health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-827861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}