Happy Monday!

There have been a lot of alleged fraudulent activities in the news recently… at least in my neck of the internet. In case you missed it, I have a recap below. I also love this week’s playlist, which kind of perfectly encapsulates the vibes I personally need right now. Enjoy!

When I started this newsletter, I recall teasing an Ash Trevino explainer and never executing it. So, I suppose it’s as good a time as any to do a quick TL;DR on this woman since she was recently in some headline-grabbing legal trouble. 

The quick summary is that Trevino, 37, is an extremely controversial and problematic Texas-based creator that rose to prominence on TikTok Live in late 2024 and early 2025. Given her shocking proclivities—she has shared her intimate parts, alleged child negligence, and racist rambles on various livestreams—she had a hard time staying on the platform, getting her accounts banned numerous times over the past year and change. Another key thing about Trevino is that she is, as the tabloids have branded her, an “inmate hopper,” which has been a major contributor to her notoriety. She has four kids—who she has at times seemingly abandoned in favor of said inmates, resulting in her followers calling CPS on her numerous times. If you want even more lore on this woman, you can get a succinct version from the whiteboard bro Soho Brody or a very long detailed explanation from Stephanie Soo. 

Anyways, that brings us to her recent guilty plea to welfare fraud and fraudulent securing of document execution. This concluded Trevino’s legal troubles, which began after she was first arrested in December 2025, released on bond, and re-arrested in March for bond violations (namely, buying and consuming alcohol). 

Trevino was accused of committing welfare and healthcare fraud over the course of a five year period from 2019 to 2024. State prosecutors accused her of using deception to prompt the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to approve applications for SNAP and Medicaid benefits valued between $2,500 and $30,000, according to Fox 4. They also alleged that she failed to disclose income in order to receive Medicaid. Although she promised to fight the charges following her initial arrest, she pleaded guilty on Aug. 5 and was ordered to pay over $16,000 in fines, serve two years of probation, perform 120 hours of community service and complete an anti-theft program, according to documents obtained by People. So, that’s the quick and dirty on Ash Trevino. Aren’t you glad you know about her now?!

If you can believe, another Texas-bred star is facing allegations of fraud. (The comparison of Ash Trevino and this next person is insane, I’ll admit. But the thread is there!)

Selena Gomez, her mother Mandy Teefy, and ex-business partner Daniella Pierson are also in hot water, with investors of their mental health startup Wondermind accusing the founders of defrauding them of $1.2 million, according to a lawsuit obtained by the New York Times. The disgruntled plaintiffs allege that the three women committed securities fraud, common-law fraud, and breach of contract after failing to deliver a “groundbreaking app,” execute high-profile partnerships, and push Gomez-led marketing campaigns. While Gomez, Teefy, and Pierson have denied the allegations, their investors are seeking to legally cancel their investment contracts as well as receive damages.

Perhaps this news comes as no surprise. After all, Wondermind came under fire nearly one year ago after The Cut published its exposé of the feel-good mental health company, which sought to make mental wellness resources more accessible. As their reporting found, Teefy had allegedly behaved erratically toward employees while Gomez had quietly distanced herself from the company. Despite the fact that mental health is one of her biggest causes, the pop star’s startup dedicated to the issue fell to the wayside. Although she has consistently promoted the Rare Impact Fund, which purports to donate millions to youth mental health organizations, Wondermind has largely faded into the background in the grand scheme of her business ventures.

Wondermind arose at a time when virtual therapy and other mental wellness apps became all the rage. There seemed to be a post-lockdown mental health boom that advertised the democratization of therapy. Yet in what feels like a symbolic turn of events, the company, according to the allegations laid out in The Cut, became more of a self-serving vanity project for those at the top rather than an actual outlet for emotional support. Such is the nature of many critiques toward social media-driven mental health advice and the creators that dish it. 

For her part, Gomez has said she will fight to get the claims dismissed, with her lawyers telling People, “The allegations that Selena Gomez engaged in any way whatsoever in any purported ‘fraud’ 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.”

It’s a tech scandal that launched a litany of nepo baby discourse. Sounds like Yap Year fodder to me!

Phoebe Gates—the 23-year-old youngest daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates—and her business partner Sophia Kianni are under fire for engaging in cookie stuffing, or affiliate marketing fraud, with their AI shopping assistant startup Phia. Essentially, the practice involves Phia’s browser extension secretly injecting its own referral code when a customer goes to check out at an online retailer—even if the consumer does not use Phia while shopping. This allows the company to earn commission for sales it did not actually drive. 

Bloomberg broke the news last week that the founders had been aware of the practice for months, with the outlet obtaining Slack messages implying prior knowledge from as far back as December. This contradicts the company claims that any evidence of cookie stuffing had been the result of a bug. As a result, people have been predictably dunking on the hubris of nepo babies, as they have latched onto the fact that a Gates child could so blatantly flout the rules and believe she could get away with it. 

“The thing about fraud committed by nepo babies or people who come from privilege is like they have this intrinsic belief that they’re smarter than everybody else that they work with and the fraud that they’re committing isn’t illegal,” Becca Platsky, host of the Corporate Gossip Podcast, observed on TikTok. “It’s just a business practice that they’re the only ones smart enough to have thought of.”

This whole debacle has essentially done the opposite of what Gates hoped for, as she previously told Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast, “I have a chip on my shoulder to build something generational that has no ties to, you know, me, my privilege, or my last name.” In terms of changing that narrative, it’s not looking great.

Sometimes you need a sonic representation of the light at the end of the tunnel. This playlist is that.

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.