The supermodel Naomi Campbell has claimed she knew nothing of the extensive financial misconduct and mismanagement at the anti-poverty fashion charity she created and sat on the board of for more than five years.
Campbell was disqualified from running a charity in May 2024, before the publication of a devastating watchdog report that revealed a trail of administrative chaos, misuse of charity funds, and chaotic record-keeping.
Her charity, Fashion for Relief, spent tens of thousands of pounds on luxury hotel rooms, flights, spa treatments, personal security and cigarettes for Campbell, and only a fraction of the donations it attracted went to good causes.
Campbell, 54, who is seeking to overturn the five-year ban imposed on her by the Charity Commission, claimed she was the victim of a “concerted deception” against her by a fellow trustee who in effect kept her in the dark about the running of the charity, and the commission’s intention to ban her.
In a charity tribunal hearing on Friday, Campbell’s lawyers said she was a “victim of fraud and forgery”, including a fake email account that she alleges the former Fashion for Relief trustee Bianka Hellmich used to impersonate her in communications with lawyers.
Hellmich told the Guardian earlier this week there was “absolutely no truth” in the allegations. Neither Hellmich, who was disqualified for nine years, or a third ex-trustee, Veronica Chou, have appealed against their disqualifications.
Charity law experts say it is rare for a charity tribunal to overturn a disqualification order, and that even if Campbell can prove a fake email account was used, it may not be sufficient to reverse the commission’s decision.
Liz Brownsell, the head of charities at the law firm Birketts, said: “Naomi Campbell has publicly admitted that she was not involved in running the charity and that she failed in her duties as a trustee. Charity trustees cannot be passive in their role and a failure to act can amount to mismanagement in the administration of the charity.
“Ultimately, the tribunal’s decision regarding her disqualification will be taken based on evidence regarding how she performed her duties as a trustee and whether the tribunal concurs with the commission’s assessment that she is unfit to act as a charity trustee.”
At the tribunal on Friday, lawyers for her and for the commission variously applied for the disclosure of documents. Campbell’s lawyers failed in an attempt to force the commission to disclose its case files.
In written arguments for Campbell, the barrister Andrew Westwood said the disqualification order was wrongly made because she was “not able adequately, or at all, to deal with issues that arose with the running of Fashion for Relief” or to present her “proper and accurate position” during the inquiry.
He told the court: “It is Ms Campbell’s case that because of the deception that was practised on her … she has been disqualified without having the opportunity to respond to the reasons for disqualification and without having had sight of the documents relied on by the commission in taking that action.”
Faisel Sadiq, for the Charity Commission, told the tribunal on Friday that Campbell’s position “is not to criticise the commission”, but to say she was a victim of fraud and that her case in a nutshell was that she “knew nothing about it” and was a “figurehead”.
Campbell said earlier this week that she had “fought to uncover the facts” ever since the commission’s report, published in September, and that she had “never undertaken philanthropic work for personal gain, nor will I ever do so”.
Article by:Source: Patrick Butler Social policy editor
