Supermodel Naomi Campbell has been barred from being a charity trustee for five years after a watchdog investigation found evidence of ‘financial misconduct’ and ‘serious financial mismanagement’ at her charity ‘Fashion For Relief’. Campbell founded the charity in 2005 with the goal of relieving poverty through fashion, which the recent investigation found she “failed to" do.

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The watchdog investigation revealed that the charity spent more than £1.6million on a gala in Cannes, but only gave £5,000 to charitable causes over a 15-month period. Despite raising considerable sums of money through star-studded event and fundraiser’s, a very small portion of those sums actually made it to the causes the charity claimed to serve. Specifically, the inquiry found that between April 2016 and July 2022, only 8.5% of the charity's overall expenditure was on charitable grants.

Rather, some of the funds were spent on spa treatments, cigarettes, room service and Campbell’s stay at a 5-star Cannes hotel.

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Problems with the high-profile charity became evident in 2021, when The Charity Commision, which regulates Charities in England and Wales, first opened their investigation. Trouble seemed to reach a peak earlier this year, after Campbell’s charity was shut down midway through the watchdog investigation into reports of ‘financial mismanagement’. At which point, The Charity Commission confirmed that it had removed the 54-year-old star’s charity from the UK charity register while the investigation continued. 

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Today the Commission published the report of its statutory inquiry into the mother-of-two’s charity, concluding that the charity was poorly managed and that “the trustees of this charity failed to” perform their legal duties. Other trustee’s at the charity, included Bianka Hellmich and Veronica Chou, who were also both barred, for nine and four years respectively. 

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 The Charity Commission's  Tim Hopkins 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…

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I am pleased that the inquiry has seen donations made to other charities which this charity has previously supported.”

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