LONDON — Naomi Campbell can return to the fundraising arena after successfully appealing a five-year ban from being a charity trustee.
In 2024, the Charity Commission, a U.K. government department for England and Wales, had disqualified Campbell, and her colleagues, from serving as charity trustees following an investigation into the mismanagement of funds at Fashion for Relief, which the model founded in 2005.
The ban was to have lasted five years. Campbell was given the green light to appeal the ruling in a U.K. tribunal in 2025.
Fashion for Relief raised money to help lift people out of poverty. It had been under investigation since 2021 for its management of funds and was dissolved in March 2024.
Campbell’s lawyer, Michelle Duncan, a partner at Joseph, Hage, Aaronson and Bremen, said the tribunal’s decision was a “significant vindication” for the model. “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 favor and overturned her disqualification in full.”
Duncan added: “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 recognized that she was deceived by someone she trusted, and that she is a fit and proper person to serve as a charity trustee.”
Campbell said she was 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.”
The model had served as chairperson of Fashion for Relief until the Charity Commission found “multiple instances of misconduct or mismanagement,” alleging that only 8.5 percent of the charity’s overall expenditure went toward charitable grants.
Campbell later conducted an in-depth investigation into the scandal, and argued that she had been tricked by certain individuals who set up a fake email account to impersonate her in communications with her lawyers, leaving her unable to defend herself from the allegations.
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