Naomi Campbell has been barred from being a charity trustee after the supermodel was found to be involved in financial misconduct.
A watchdog investigation uncovered that Naomi used money from the poverty relief charity for her personal use. She has been barred for five years from the UK charity that she founded.
A thorough Charity Commission inquiry, after finding evidence of the misconduct, has disqualified Naomi Campbell for five years. They found out that only a small portion of the millions of pounds it raised, went to good causes. Fashion for Relief raised money from star-studded celebrity fashion events.
The investigation found that a large sum of the money was spent inappropriately on luxury hotel rooms, flights, spa treatments, personal security and cigarettes for Naomi Campbell.
Then there were unauthorised consultancy payments running into hundreds of thousands of pounds made to one of Campbell’s fellow trustees, the commission said.
The inquiry found out that over a period of five years from 2016, Fashion for Relief raised just under Sh718 million (£4.8m) from a series of fashion shows but paid only Sh55 million (£389,000) in grants to partner charities once the cost of events and other expenses were accounted for.
Close to Sh50 million (£350,000) was later recovered from the charity by interim managers appointed by the commission and paid to the charities Save the Children and the Mayor’s Fund for London. They had reported Fashion for Relief to the regulators four years ago after they did not receive promised payments.
It was found out that Naomi Campbell’s fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich received Sh41 million (£290,000) in unauthorised consultancy fees and Sh3.7 million (£26,000) a year in travel expenses from the charity.
He transferred this money over a period of two years. Hellmich has been disqualified from being a charity trustee for nine years.
A third trustee, Veronica Chou has been banned for four years.
When asked about the doings, Fashion for Relief argued that it was not solely a fundraising charity but also a platform that, through its high-profile fundraising events, encouraged donors to give directly to its partner charities and good causes.
The commission report, however, reveals that it did not immediately pay Save the Children €450,000 (£375,000) raised at a 2017 fundraising event. Fashion for Relief paid some of the funds, and the remaining money it owed – £147,000 – was eventually paid by Fashion for Relief’s interim managers in January 2023.
The UK charity, it was found, had been a lost case owing to serious misconduct, financial mismanagement and poor governance. The report found that the records were chaotic and there was no financial management involving failure to keep evidence of invoices and receipts or formal minutes of meetings and decisions.
The charity had no full-time staff, but referred administrative and accounting matters to outside advisers.
Fashion for Relief was removed from the register of charities on March 15, 2024.
