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\n\tAccusations that Selena Gomez duped investors into putting $1.2 million into mental health startup Wondermind are baseless, the star\u2019s lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, says after Gomez was named in a lawsuit filed Thursday (Aug. 13). Rosengart will be filing a motion to dismiss claims made in the suit.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tSelena Gomez & Her Mental Health Startup Hit With Investor Fraud Lawsuit: \u2018Financial Calamity\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\tOn Saturday (Aug. 15), the litigator denied allegations made against Gomez in the statement seen below, which was first published by People<\/em>. Billboard <\/em>independently verified the statement with Rosengart.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe allegations that Selena Gomez engaged in any way whatsoever in any purported \u2018fraud\u2019 or other wrongdoing are completely meritless, both factually and legally. We will vigorously defend these false allegations and indeed are filing a motion to dismiss the baseless claims against her,\u201d Rosengart said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of five investors \u2014 Brent Saunders, Marc Roberts, EJ Solimine, Andrew Resnick and Mark Peikin \u2014 who are seeking the return of the money they invested in Wondermind, as well as additional financial damages for alleged wrongdoing by leadership at the company, which they say \u201cquietly collapsed around them\u201d while \u201cnot one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe group claims that Gomez, Mandy Teefey (Gomez\u2019s mother) and Danielle Pierson (former executive), who co-founded the mental health-focused company in 2021, led them to inves in the company in 2022.<\/p>\n
\n\tWondermind was envisioned as a suite of mental health media initiatives, including a digital magazine, a mobile app and a podcast.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe plaintiffs allege they were promised Gomez would be actively involved as Wondermind\u2019s head of marketing, leveraging her huge fanbase and social media following to promote companity initiatives.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe plaintiffs allege Pierson \u2014 who no longer works at the company \u2014 told them Wondermind had a \u201cpotential future valuation\u201d of more than $4 billion, and that she\u2019d generated $40 million a year at her prior media company, The Newsette<\/em>. They were also allegedly told the company had partnerships in place with JPMorgan and Fidelity, as well as major ad deals and interest in cover story features with stars like Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Elton John and Camila Cabello.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe lawsuit claims pitches turned out to be false, and that the investors only learned \u201cthe sheer magnitude of the fraud that the defendants had foisted upon them\u201d when an expos\u00e9 was published by The Cut<\/em> last year that painted a picture of an apparently troubled financial state at Wondermind.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe accounts in the\u00a0Cut<\/em>\u00a0article collectively show that, from the outset, Wondermind had no plan for its future \u2014 much less a plan for achieving a multi-billion dollar valuation,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
The Cut<\/em> reported in part that, after speaking with 14 current and former Wondermind employees, they\u2019d learned Gomez distanced herself from the company soon after its launch, that finances were dire due to Teefey\u2019s alleged erratic behavior and substance abuse issues, and that Pierson left Wondermind in 2023 due to a power struggle with Teefey; Pierson\u2019s work at her previous employer was also under scrutiny. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe 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\u2019 representations about the company\u2019s operations, personnel and financial prospects were a fiction. There was no legitimate enterprise in the works, much less a lucrative one,\u201d Thursday\u2019s lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n
\n\tTeefey denied allegations of company mismanagement, and said Wondermind remained viable, when The Cut<\/em> article went to publication last year. \u201cI started Wondermind because I wanted to help people with mental illness. It\u2019s 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/selena-gomez-lawyer-investor-fraud-lawsuit-statement\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/selena-gomez-may-6-2026-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Accusations that Selena Gomez duped investors into putting $1.2 million into mental health startup Wondermind are baseless, the star\u2019s lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, says after Gomez was named in a lawsuit filed Thursday (Aug. 13). Rosengart will be filing a motion to dismiss claims made in the suit. Related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2095612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2095612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2095612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2095612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2095612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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