Actress and model, Naomi Campbell, has been banned from being a charity trustee after a watchdog investigation uncovered widespread evidence of financial misconduct at the pov3rty relief charity she founded.
The supermodel was disqualified for five years after a Charity Commission inquiry found that Fashion for Relief passed on only a small fraction of the millions of pounds it raised from star-studded celebrity fashion events to good causes.
The charity inappropriately spent tens of thousands of pounds on luxury hotel rooms, flights, spa treatments, personal security and cigarettes for Campbell, while unauthorised consultancy payments running into hundreds of thousands of pounds were made to one of Campbell’s fellow trustees, the commission said.
It found that over a five-year period from 2016, Fashion for Relief raised just under £4.8m from a series of fashion shows but paid out only £389,000 in grants to partner charities once the cost of events and other expenses were accounted for.
Nearly £350,000 was later recovered from the charity by interim managers appointed by the commission and paid to the charities Save the Children and the Mayor’s Fund for London, which reported Fashion for Relief to the regulators four years ago after failing to receive promised payments from fundraising agreements..
Campbell’s fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich, who the inquiry found received £290,000 in unauthorised consultancy fees and £26,000 a year in travel expenses from the charity over a two-year period, was disqualified from being a charity trustee for nine years.
The commission report, reveals that it did not immediately pay Save the Children €450,000 (£375,000) raised at a 2017 fundraising event. [Continue reading on next slide]
