British supermodel Naomi Campbell has received a five-year ban from serving as a charity trustee in England and Wales due to severe governance issues within her founded charity, Fashion for Relief. This decision follows a comprehensive three-year investigation by the Charity Commission, which revealed significant misconduct and mismanagement concerning the charity’s financial operations.
According to reports from the Associated Press, the investigation found that during a six-year span from 2016, a mere 8.5% of Fashion for Relief’s total expenditures were allocated to charitable grants. Alarmingly, the commission identified multiple instances where charity funds were misappropriated, including extravagant expenditures on personal luxuries. Notably, funds were used to cover Campbell’s luxurious hotel accommodations in Cannes, France, which included spa treatments, room service, and even cigarettes.
The commission noted that while trustees claimed that these hotel expenses were typically funded by a donor and not by the charity itself, they failed to provide any substantiating evidence for this assertion.
In addition to Campbell’s disqualification, fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich has been barred from serving as a trustee for nine years after reportedly receiving approximately £290,000 (about $385,000) in unauthorized payments for consultancy services, violating the charity’s governing rules. Another trustee, Veronica Chou, has been disqualified for four years.
Tim Hopkins, deputy director for specialist investigations and standards at the Charity Commission, emphasized the legal responsibilities of charity trustees. “Trustees are legally required to make decisions that are in their charity’s best interests and to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities,” he stated. “Our inquiry has found that the trustees of this charity failed to do so, which has resulted in our action to disqualify them.”
Fashion for Relief, established in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, aimed to raise funds for humanitarian efforts across various global initiatives. Earlier this year, the charity was officially dissolved and removed from the register of charities. Despite its closure, the charity’s website, still operational, boasts of raising over $15 million for various causes through fashion initiatives in cities such as New York, London, Cannes, Moscow, Mumbai, and Dar es Salaam.
This disqualification serves as a stark reminder of the accountability required in charity governance, highlighting the importance of transparency and ethical management in non-profit organizations.
