Naomi Campbell banned from charity leadership roles for five years

The Charity Commission has banned the model Naomi Campbell from sitting on charity boards for five years for her role in running Fashion for Relief.

Following its probe into the charity the regulator found it was “poorly governed”, had “inadequate financial management” and was blighted by “multiple instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement”.

Just 8.5% of its overall expenditure was spent on charitable grants between 2016 and 2022, the regulator found.

They also found “no evidence” that the charity’s trustees had reformed its operating model to ensure fundraising was “in the charity’s best interest”.

Some of the charity’s fundraising spending was also found to be “not reasonable”.

Campbell, who founded Fashion for Relief, is one of three people involved in running the charity to receive bans.

The lawyer Bianka Hellmich has been banned from charity trusteeships for nine years, while businesswoman Veronica Chou has been blocked from sitting on charity boards for four years.

Among concerns highlighted by the Commission were unauthorised payments totalling £290,000 for “consultancy services” paid to Hellmich, which is a breach of the charity’s rules.

In addition, the regulator found that charity money was being held on its behalf by solicitors and accountants rather than through a dedicated bank account in the charity’s name.

The regulator said it has recovered over £344,000 and protected a further £98,000 of charitable funds. These have been used to make donations to two other charities and settle outstanding liabilities at the charity, which has been wound up and removed from the register. It had been on the register since 2015.

Campbell and other trustees were sidelined by the Commission in running the charity last year when the regulator appointed interim managers to take charge of its management.

“Trustees are legally required to make decisions that are in their charity’s best interests and to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities,” said Charity Commission deputy director for specialist investigations and standards Tim Hopkins.

“Our inquiry has found that the trustees of this charity failed to do so, which has resulted in our action to disqualify them.  