Naomi Campbell Can Appeal Charity Trustee Ban in Fashion for Relief Funding Scandal
Naomi Campbell is hoping to clear her name and work as a high-powered fundraiser once again after a U.K. tribunal gave her the green light to appeal against a ban that prevents her from being a charity trustee.
Jeremy Rintoul, an upper tribunal judge, granted Campbell permission to appeal the five-year ban after receiving and reviewing new evidence uncovered by Campbell’s team.
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The evidence appears to show that a fake email account was used to impersonate Campbell in communications with her lawyers, meaning that someone else was sending and receiving emails purporting to be to, and from her, according to her spokesperson.
“Importantly, this also meant that Miss Campbell was not made aware of the allegations being made in the Charity Commission inquiry about the mismanagement of Fashion for Relief U.K., or her alleged role in it — and did not have the opportunity to answer them,” the spokesperson added.
As reported in September, The Charity Commission, a U.K. government department for England and Wales, disqualified Campbell and others from being charity trustees following an investigation into the mismanagement of funds at Fashion for Relief.
Fashion for Relief was founded by the British model in 2005, with the aim of raising funds for health, education and lifting people out of poverty. The charity has been under investigation since 2021 for its management of funds and was dissolved in March 2024.
Campbell had served as chairperson, with Bianka Hellmich and Veronica Chou serving as directors. Campbell was disqualified for five years; Hellmich for nine years, and Chou for four years following the commission’s findings of “multiple instances of misconduct or mismanagement.”
The Charity Commission found that, between April 2016 and July 2022, only 8.5 percent of Fashion for Relief’s overall expenditure went toward charitable grants.
As reported, hundreds of thousands of pounds were spent on consultancy services, in breach of the charity’s constitution, while tens of thousands of pounds went toward “luxury hotel rooms, spa treatments, cigarettes and personal security for Campbell.”
Some of the money has been recovered and donated to the charities that Fashion for Relief had supported.
In September, Tim Hopkins, the Charity Commission’s deputy director for specialist investigations and standards, 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.”
Campbell said she was grateful to the tribunal for allowing her to appeal the findings based on the evidence her team has uncovered.
“Ever since the commission’s report, I have fought to uncover the facts. What has been unearthed so far is shocking. I want to shine a light on how easy it is to fake identities online, and prevent anybody else going through what I have been through,” she said.
“I want to ensure that those responsible are held accountable and justice is done. Having begun legal action, I will have more to say in due course. This is just the beginning. As I have said before, I have never undertaken philanthropic work for personal gain, nor will I ever do so,” Campbell added.
Further legal hearings are due to take place, starting this week.
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