The commission said its three-year investigation into Fashion for Relief surfaced expenses that it deemed “not reasonable.”…reports Asian Lite News
Naomi Campbell has been barred for five years from leading any charitable organization in England and Wales after a watchdog group said Thursday it found she and others had “poorly governed” a charity that the British supermodel founded almost two decades ago.
Britain’s Charity Commission found that Campbell’s Fashion for Relief organization devoted 8.5 percent of its expenses to charitable grants over a six-year period that began in 2016, according to the findings released Thursday. The regulatory department said Campbell and others mismanaged finances and will be temporarily banned from being trustees of any group — Campbell for five years, and her fellow trustees Bianka Hellmich and Veronica Chou for nine and four years, respectively, the commission said in a news release.
“Trustees are legally required to make decisions that are in their charity’s best interests and to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities,” Tim Hopkins, the Charity Commission’s deputy director for specialist investigations and standards, said in a statement. “Our inquiry has found that the trustees of this charity failed to do so, which has resulted in our action to disqualify them.”
The commission said its three-year investigation into Fashion for Relief surfaced expenses that it deemed “not reasonable.” This included spending thousands of dollars for security and a five-star hotel stay for Campbell during a 2018 event in Cannes, France. “These costs included spa treatments, room service, and the purchase of cigarettes and hotel products,” the report said.
Hellmich, a fellow trustee, received 290,572 pounds (more than $389,500) in unauthorized consultancy fees, the report said.
The report from the Charity Commission also said that Fashion for Relief had “failed to manage” partnerships with two other organizations, the Save the Children Fund and the Mayor’s Fund for London, to which it owed money. Investigators said they “recovered” about 344,000 pounds and “protected” nearly 98,000 pounds, which were used to settle outstanding payments to those two groups.
Fashion for Relief was originally founded in 2005 to offer assistance following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, according to the charity’s website. The aim of the foundation was to raise money and present fashion initiatives across the world. The website said the charity provided relief after multiple natural disasters and raised $15 million “for good causes.”
The commission began investigating the charity in 2021 after the organization failed to explain how its finances were being managed, according to the report released Thursday. Fashion for Relief dissolved in March 2024.