Investors in Wondermind have sued Selena Gomez, Mandy Teefey, Daniella Pierson and Wondermind in Delaware federal court, accusing them of securities fraud and breach of contract after saying they put nearly $1.2 million into the company. The filing, brought on Thursday by Wondermind SRS 44 and Bespoke Wondermind SPV, says they were sold a company with real leadership, partnerships and advertising deals that never existed.
The lawsuit is drawing attention now because it turns a celebrity-backed mental health startup into a federal fraud case with specific dollar figures attached. Wondermind SRS 44 said it invested nearly $1.2 million, and the complaint says the money went in after investors were told the company had the infrastructure to operate and grow. Instead, the plaintiffs say the business was already breaking down and that no founder, officer or director told them for three years that it was collapsing.
At the center of the complaint are claims that Pierson told investors in May 2022, and again in email correspondence the following month, that Wondermind had secured partnerships with JP Morgan and Fidelity, expected to generate $5 million in ad revenue that year and had already reached 150,000 subscribers. She also sent a document suggesting the company’s valuation could eventually pass $4 billion. The investors say those promises were false.
The complaint goes further, saying the partnerships did not exist, the initiatives never materialized and the app was never built. It also says the plaintiffs did not learn there were problems until Forbes published an article about Pierson, after which they asked Teefey for an explanation. Teefey, the filing says, told them Pierson had misappropriated investor funds to pay New York apartment rent and other personal expenses.
That is the hard edge of the case: the investors say they were told Selena Gomez would be intimately involved and expected to serve as head of marketing, yet they later allege the company kept projecting strength as recently as April while the business was failing behind the scenes. The complaint also cites a September 2025 article in The Cut about company mismanagement and substance abuse by Teefey, adding to the picture the plaintiffs say they were denied when they wrote the checks.
The lawsuit does not say how the defendants will answer those claims, but it now puts the future of Wondermind in the hands of a Delaware court. For Gomez, Teefey and Pierson, the next step is a legal defense that will have to explain why investors say they were funding the collapse they were never told about.
