Supermodel Naomi Campbell said she is “so grateful” after winning a legal challenge to overturn a five-year ban on being a charity trustee.
The tribunal ruling is a “significant vindication” for the charity founder, her lawyers said.
The 56-year-old was disqualified from being a charity trustee for five years in 2024 after the charities regulator concluded there had been serious mismanagement of funds at Fashion for Relief, which she founded.
This included using charity funds to pay for her stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes, France, as well as spa treatments, room service and cigarettes.
A probe into Fashion for Relief was opened by the Charity Commission – which regulates charities in England and Wales – in 2021.
The charity, which had been set up with the aim of uniting the fashion industry to relieve poverty and advance health and education by making grants to other organisations and giving resources towards global disasters, was dissolved and removed from the register of charities in 2024.
Earlier this year, Campbell brought a case to the First Tier Tribunal to overturn her disqualification.
In a judgment on Thursday, the three-person tribunal ruled in the supermodel’s favour, finding she had been “deceived” by fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich.
Campbell issued a statement telling how she had been “hurt deeply” by the episode and expressing gratitude to the judges for “taking the time to hear my side”.
She said: “I’m so grateful to the tribunal and the judges for taking the time to hear my side, look at the evidence, and see the truth of what happened.
“Giving back has been part of who I am, so having that questioned hurt deeply.
“Now I can get back to what matters most to me: being there for the people and communities I’ve always wanted to serve. Thank you to my higher power.”
In their ruling, judges Joe Neville and James Armstrong-Holmes, sitting with a third member, said: “There was serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity she founded, Fashion for Relief.
“The tribunal has found, however, that its most serious features, including unauthorised payments to Ms Campbell’s co-trustee, Bianka Hellmich, failures in the management of the charity’s finances and the misuse of its funds, resulted from Ms Hellmich’s conduct and were concealed from Ms Campbell.”
Campbell was one of three of the charity’s trustees to be disqualified as a result of the investigation, with Ms Hellmich disqualified for nine years, and Veronica Chou for four years.
The judges said Ms Hellmich “used forged documents” and also deceived professional advisers and the Charity Commission.
They added: “Ms Campbell was not involved in, and did not know of, that conduct.”
The judges also said that while Campbell shared responsibility for the charity failing to file its accounts on time, this did not mean she was unfit to be a charity trustee in the circumstances of the case “including the sustained deception” she had faced.
It is understood to be only the second time a trustee disqualification order made by the commission has been overturned by a tribunal.
During a four-day hearing in June, Campbell said her “only mistake” was trusting Ms Hellmich, whom she alleged forged her signature and lied about her credentials as a charity lawyer.
“I don’t look at it as a failure, I look at it as me trusting someone that I knew, someone that was a lawyer,” Campbell said, telling the central London tribunal that she and the Charity Commission had been deceived.
The commission had opposed Campbell’s challenge and said the five-year ban should be upheld.
The tribunal judges rejected criticisms made by lawyers for the commission about Campbell’s evidence, including that the supermodel was focused on “controlling the media narrative”.
They said: “In our assessment none of Ms Campbell’s answers were capable of being taken as doing any such thing,” adding that her evidence and conduct while the charity operated “was entirely honest”.
Michelle Duncan, partner at Joseph, Hage, Aaronson and Bremen which represented Campbell, described the ruling as “a significant vindication” for their client.
Ms Duncan said: “Having won the right to an appeal, we are pleased that the Tribunal, after a thorough review of the evidence, has found in Ms Campbell’s favour and overturned her disqualification in full.
“We are delighted that the Tribunal has now found Ms Campbell’s account to be truthful and that her conduct as a Trustee of Fashion for Relief was entirely honest and professional.
“They recognised that she was deceived by someone she trusted and that she is a fit and proper person to serve as a charity trustee. ”
A Charity Commission spokesperson said its intervention had ensured £250,000 of funds raised for charities including Save the Children and The Mayor’s Fund for London was passed on to the organisations.
They added: “We made the disqualification order for Ms Campbell based on the evidence available to us at the time.
“The court recognised that Ms Campbell, the commission and the law firm concerned were subject to sophisticated deception by one of the other trustees. This was referred to the Metropolitan Police when we became aware.
“We acknowledge and will reflect on the court’s decision and are considering any wider implications for our work.”
Share