Naomi Campbell appeared in a London court Tuesday to challenge a five-year ban that the U.K. charity regulator imposed after finding serious financial mismanagement involving the charity she founded, Fashion for Relief.
Naomi Campbell walked into a London courtroom on Tuesday knowing the fight would hinge on money, paperwork, and what “philanthropy” is supposed to look like on a balance sheet.
The British supermodel. 56. is giving evidence as she tries to overturn an official decision barring her from serving as a charity trustee in England and Wales for five years. The ban was imposed in 2024 by the U.K. charity regulator, which said it found serious financial mismanagement at Fashion for Relief, a charity Campbell founded.
The regulator said that thousands of pounds from the charity were used to pay for Campbell’s luxury hotel stay in Cannes. France. along with spa treatments. room service. and even cigarettes. It also concluded that only 8.5% of the charity’s overall expenditure went to charitable grants over a six-year period, from 2016.
Campbell launched an appeal last year. In a written statement before she began giving evidence Tuesday, she rejected the regulator’s findings and said she was a “victim of fraud and forgery.” She told the court she has “never undertaken philanthropic work for personal gain, nor will I ever do so.”
“My investigation has revealed identity fraud and deception and helps uncover why most of the funds weren’t used as intended,” Campbell said. She added that her legal team had uncovered conduct “shocking” in nature, including “fake email addresses and forged communications with the authorities.”
The case is not limited to Campbell alone. The regulator also found that fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich received around 290,000 pounds (about $385,000) of unauthorized funds for consultancy services. Hellmich was disqualified as a trustee for nine years. A third trustee, Veronica Chou, was barred for four years.
Fashion for Relief was registered in 2015 with the aim of uniting the fashion industry to relieve poverty and help people affected by natural or other disasters around the world. The organization was dissolved and removed from the register of charities in 2024.
In the courtroom, Campbell’s appeal places a stark question at the center of the dispute: whether the charity’s spending failures were the result of her choices—or, as she argues, a scheme involving fraud and falsified communications that kept funds from being used as intended.
Naomi Campbell London court charity trustee ban Charity Commission Fashion for Relief Bianka Hellmich Veronica Chou philanthropy England and Wales
So she’s suing because they called it mismanagement?? Sounds like the paperwork police again.
I don’t get it, charity means help people… not pay for hotel spas in Cannes. If that’s true then yeah ban her. If not then someone needs to explain the whole “fraud and forgery” part.
“8.5% went to grants” is insane. But also like, rich people always say they were victims of fraud lol. Fake emails and forged communications… so does that mean the charity system itself got hacked? Or is she just arguing semantics.
Why are they even focusing on Naomi? The article says the charity got dissolved and removed, so shouldn’t the regulator go after everyone, including the other trustees?? Also Cannes hotel AND cigarettes? That just feels like a headline that got out of control. I’m sure she’s innocent or whatever, but the math doesn’t look good.