Selena Gomez and her legal team have released a fiery statement after the “Only Murders in the Building” star was accused of defrauding investors in her mental health startup, Wondermind, in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
“The allegations that Selena Gomez engaged in any way whatsoever in any purported ‘fraud’ or other wrongdoing are completely meritless, both factually and legally,” Gomez’s litigator, Mathew S. Rosengart, told People. “We will vigorously defend these false allegations and indeed are filing a motion to dismiss the baseless claims against her.”
According to The New York Times, the lawsuit, which also names Gomez’s mother and Wondermind co-founder Mandy Teefey as a defendant, claims the Wondermind team “falsely represented” the trajectory and leadership structure of the media company, which was founded in 2021 as a way to make mental health resources more accessible. Investors claimed that Gomez and her mother solicited about $1.2 million from them.
The suit alleges that Gomez had signed a contract stating that she would be “actively building the company as its head of marketing,” but has since “ignored” the agreement. It also claims that there were said to be partnerships with Fidelity and J.P. Morgan that would allow Wondermind to provide mental health services to their employees, but they “did not exist.” Celebrity profiles, a “groundbreaking app” and advertising deals that were promised also fell through, the lawsuit states.
