Legendary supermodel Naomi Campbell has been banned from serving as a charity trustee for five years following a U.K. watchdog investigation that uncovered evidence of financial misconduct at her charity, Fashion for Relief.
Though the group was billed as a charitable organization that provided grants to help fund various environmental and humanitarian causes, officials said the charity was “poorly governed and had inadequate financial management.”
The U.K.’s regulatory Charity Commission launched an inquiry into Fashion for Relief in 2021 and published a report of its findings on Thursday.
Funds that should have been used for charitable causes instead paid for luxury hotel rooms, spa treatments, room service and cigarettes, the commission wrote. Between April 2016 and July 2022, the probe found only 8.5 per cent of Fashion for Relief’s overall expenditure was spent on charitable grants.
Campbell, 54, has not commented publicly on the report.
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As a result of the misconduct, the commission barred Campbell and two others from future trusteeship.
Bianka Hellmich, also a Fashion for Relief trustee, was banned for nine years after officials discovered she received £290,000 (about C$524,400) payment in unauthorized consultancy fees.
Another trustee, Veronica Chou, received a four-year ban.
The ban means Campbell, Hellmich and Chou cannot hold any trustee position or senior management role at a charity in England and Wales until their barring has lifted.
Officials said they were able to recover £344,000 (about C$622,000) in lost charitable funds. An additional £98,000 (nearly C$177,200) was also protected, according to the report. The money was paid to two other charities: Save the Children Fund and the Mayor’s Fund for London.
Campbell launched Fashion for Relief in 2005. The charity dissolved in March of this year.
The Charity Commission’s assistant director for specialist investigations and standards, Tim Hopkins, said he was content with the result of the investigation.
“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,” he said. “I am pleased that the inquiry has seen donations made to other charities which this charity has previously supported.”
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