Naomi Campbell has been disqualified from serving as a charity trustee for five years after an investigation by the Charity Commission revealed serious mismanagement of funds at Fashion for Relief, a charity she founded.
The inquiry exposed a pattern of improper spending, including the use of charity funds to pay for Campbell’s personal expenses, such as stays at five-star hotels, spa treatments, and cigarettes.
Fashion for Relief, established in 2005, aimed to unite the fashion industry in the fight against poverty andsupport health and education initiatives by granting funds to other charitable organisations.
The charity also raised money for global disaster relief through star-studded fundraising events held in cities like Cannes and London. However, the Charity Commission’s investigation found that only a small fraction of the funds raised was actually used for charitable purposes.
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Campbell, Hellmich, and Chou banned from charity roles…
The inquiry began in 2021, and Fashion for Relief was officially dissolved and removed from the charity register earlier this year. The investigation revealed that from April 2016 to July 2022, just 8.5% of the charity’s total expenditure was spent on charitable grants.
The commission found no evidence that the trustees ensured the charity’s fundraising methods were in its best interests, nor that they ensured funds were spent reasonably in relation to income generated.
The trustees claimed that donors typically covered spa treatments, room service, cigarettes, and hotel costs, but the Charity Commission found no evidence to support this assertion. So Campbell was banned from being a charity trustee for five years, while fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich received a nine-year ban and Veronica Chou a four-year ban.
Till date, the commission managed to recover £344,000 from the charity, with an additional £98,000 of charitable funds protected.
Tim Hopkins, assistant director for specialist investigations and standards at the Charity Commission, said, “Trustees are legally required to make decisions that are in their charity’s best interests and to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities. Our inquiry has found that the trustees of this charity failed to do so, which has resulted in our action to disqualify them.”
