A Charity Commission inquiry has found that Fashion for Relief, the charity founded by supermodel Naomi Campbell, was not distributing as much of the money raised as it was supposed to.
Instead, funds were reportedly spent on cigarettes, security for Campbell, and unauthorized payments to one of her fellow charity trustees.
“I’ve just found out today about the findings, and I am extremely concerned,” Campbell, 54, told the AP news agency. As a result of the inquiry, she has been banned from any charity involvement for five years. Two other trustees, Bianka Hellmich and Veronica Chou, received bans of nine years and four years, respectively.
The inquiry revealed that unauthorized payments totaling £290,000 had been made to Ms. Hellmich for consultancy services, which breached the charity’s constitution. Although Ms. Hellmich had proposed repaying these funds voluntarily, the interim managers appointed by the Commission secured repayments to the charity.
Investigators recovered nearly £345,000 from Fashion for Relief and established protections for an additional £98,000 of charity funds. These recovered funds were used to make payments to two other charities—Save the Children Fund and the Mayor’s Fund for London—and to cover Fashion for Relief’s liabilities.
The inquiry examined Fashion for Relief’s expenses from April 2016 to July 2022 and found that only 8.5% of the funds raised were spent on grants to charity. Following the initiation of the inquiry, both Save the Children Fund and the Mayor’s Fund for London lodged complaints with the Commission regarding Fashion for Relief.
Fashion for Relief had organized fundraising events for these two charities but failed to manage its partnership arrangements effectively. Tim Hopkins, a member of the investigations team, stated:
“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 added that the inquiry found that the trustees had failed in these obligations, leading to their disqualification.
As a consequence of these findings, Fashion for Relief was removed from the regist
er of charities on March 15, 2024.
