by Naomi Campbell has admitted failing in her duties as a trustee of the Fashion for Relief charity she founded – but has insisted she never committed any financial wrongdoing or used the charity for personal gain during its chaotic nine-year run .
Campbell was last week banned from running a charity for five years after a damning report found she and her two fellow trustees were responsible for multiple incidents of serious misconduct and financial mismanagement.
The Charity Commission’s investigation found that over five years to 2020, Fashion for Relief raised almost £4.8 million from fashion show fundraisers, but only 10% of the £4.6 million proceeds went in the form of grants shared with partner charities.
The charity, which was set up to raise money for good causes around the world, was revealed to have spent tens of thousands of pounds on luxury hotel rooms, spa treatments, personal security and cigarettes at a Fashion for Relief charity fashion event spent on Campbell.
A spokeswoman for Campbell said she “recognizes and accepts her responsibilities as a Fashion for Relief trustee.” While she admitted that she “may not have been as actively involved in the day-to-day running of the charity as she should have been,” she said she “never committed any financial misconduct in any way.”
A statement issued on behalf of Campbell on Friday said: “For over three decades [Campbell] has worked tirelessly for charitable causes, always with the sole intention of helping others and never for personal gain. Naomi has never received any payment for her involvement with Fashion for Relief, nor has she charged the organization any personal expenses.”
The statement also discusses a Guardian report which revealed that Fashion for Relief was the subject of a “serious incident report” submitted to the commission by Unicef UK after the global children’s charity was mistakenly identified as a fundraising partner of a charity Fashion for Relief London Fashion Week event was held in September 2019.
Campbell’s spokesman said Fashion for Relief had been involved in “ongoing meetings and discussions” about a fundraising collaboration with Unicef before the event and had prepared promotional materials in advance. Fashion for Relief’s partnership with Unicef was referenced in press articles and social media before and after the event.
The spokesman said: “At the last minute the cooperation did not materialise. Every effort was made to remove the Unicef brand from event materials. There was no mention of Unicef in the invitation to the event or on the website, and there was no mention of Unicef in Naomi’s speech.”
Campbell’s team believes the use of the Unicef trademark on promotional materials was an honest mistake made in good faith. A spokesperson said that Fashion for Relief held discussions with Unicef UK about possible future fundraising collaboration following the 2019 event, but these did not materialize due to the Covid pandemic.
Unicef said it had nothing to add to a statement earlier this week in which it said it had never had an official partnership with Fashion for Relief and never received funds from the 2019 event.
Unicef UK filed the major incident report in 2022 after becoming aware that its trademark had been used in connection with the event. Charities are required to inform the Commission if they experience “adverse events” which they believe will result in harm to beneficiaries, financial loss or reputational damage.
Save the Children and The Mayor’s Fund for London have said they were owed money after working with Fashion for Relief on fundraising events. They later received £200,000 and £50,000 respectively when Fashion for Relief was wound up by commission managers in 2023.
The serious incident report was examined by the Commission during its two-and-a-half year investigation into Fashion for Relief. The investigation report describes extraordinary examples of chaotic management and poor accounting at the charity over several years, as well as multiple breaches of the trustees’ legal duties.
These include unauthorized advice and expenses payments of £290,000 over two years to a Fashion for Relief trustee, Bianka Hellmich. The payments subsequently authorized by Campbell were made in breach of her legal duties as a fiduciary. Hellmich, who was banned from trustees for nine years last week, paid the money back after the commission intervened.
