Naomi Campbell Appeals Charity Ban, Blames Trustee

Supermodel Naomi Campbell told a London tribunal on Tuesday that she was deceived by a fellow trustee, as she appealed a five-year ban from running charities in England and Wales. The Charity Commission disqualified Campbell in 2024 after an investigation found serious financial mismanagement at Fashion for Relief, the charity she founded.

The regulator's inquiry determined that only 8.5% of the charity's expenditure between April 2016 and July 2022 went to charitable grants. It found that charity funds were used to pay for Campbell's stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes, France, as well as spa treatments, cigarettes, and room service. The commission also said fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich received hundreds of thousands of pounds in unauthorized consultancy payments.

Campbell, 56, testified that her only mistake was trusting Hellmich, whom she alleges forged her signature, used a fake email address to impersonate her, and lied about her credentials as a charity lawyer. "I did not do a check on Bianka Hellmich. When I'm introduced to a lawyer, I assume they are acting within the law," Campbell told the tribunal. She said Hellmich "came across as a lawyer" and had worked in...