An uproar has been caused by irregularities discovered in the management of money and operations of the charity run by Naomi Campbell, the famous super-model who had been internationally prominent in previous decades.
Alina Loi
Naomi Campbell is the star of a new scandal after her charity Fashion for Relief, which she founded in 2005, was judged on Thursday to be "poorly run" with "inadequate financial management".
According to the Guardian, tens of thousands of pounds were spent on "luxury hotel rooms, flights, spa treatments, personal safety and cigarettes for Campbell".
Among the charges were the execution of the bill in a hotel room worth 3,000 euros per night as well as the payment of 4,000 euros for personal security in Cannes. The organisation also channelled £290,000 in unauthorised consultancy fees to the model's co-manager, Bianka Hellmich, and £26,000 in travel expenses per year.
Hellmich was banned from being a trustee for nine years and fully returned the fees to the Charities Commission in April 2023. Veronica Chou, another commissioner of the charity, has also been banned for four years.
In one case, the report details that Fashion for Relief raised £375,000 at a fundraising event for Save the Children in 2017, but did not complete the payment to the charity until almost six years later, in 2023.
A three-year investigation carried out by the Charities Commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, found evidence of financial impropriety and revealed that of the millions raised by the famous model and her organisation, only a small fraction – namely only 8.5% of the charity's total spending – was actually donated to charity.
Following the revelations and the uproar, she was banned from charity for five years, with her saying she did not know what was going on as she was not the one in control of the organisation.
"I didn't have control over my charity, I put control in the hands of a legitimate employer," she said in response to a question from the AP after being made a knight of France's Order of Arts and Letters at the country's culture ministry for her contribution to French culture.
"We're researching to find out what and how, and whatever money I've ever raised goes to charity," he added.
In fact, during the ceremony and in the wake of the scandal, she couldn't hold back tears.
