Selena Gomez Fights $1.2M Wondermind Fraud Suit

Selena Gomez's lawyer says a federal lawsuit accusing the singer and actress of defrauding investors in her mental health startup Wondermind is "completely meritless" — and he is moving to have it thrown out.

Investors who say they put nearly $1.2 million into Wondermind Global sued Gomez, her mother and Wondermind co-founder Mandy Teefey, and former business partner Daniella Pierson in federal court in Delaware this week.

The suit claims Gomez signed a contract committing her to actively build the company as head of marketing, then ignored it, and that promised corporate partnerships never existed.

What the Lawsuit Claims

The plaintiffs say Gomez and Teefey solicited about $1.2 million from them and that the Wondermind team "falsely represented" the company's trajectory and leadership structure.

"Gomez purported to sign a contract obligating her to perform and then ignored it," the complaint says.

It alleges partnerships with Fidelity and J.P. Morgan — which were supposed to let Wondermind provide mental health services to those firms' employees — "did not exist." Promised celebrity profiles, a "groundbreaking app" and advertising deals also fell through, according to the filing.

The suit says the company failed to meet "even its most basic obligations, such as timely paying its employees and vendors," and that "there was no legitimate enterprise in the works, much less a lucrative one."

It further alleges Wondermind "quietly collapsed around them" while "not one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors." The plaintiffs are seeking to recover their investments and legal fees.