Naomi Campbell clears hurdle as UK tribunal overturns five-year charity trustee ban

London, October 2 — In a recent legal challenge, former supermodel Naomi Campbell secured a victory to overturn a five-year ban that prevented her from serving as a charity trustee, as ruled by a UK tribunal. The panel acknowledged that Campbell had been a victim of deception and determined that she "was not involved" with the mismanagement of her Fashion for Relief organisation.

The tribunal concluded that Campbell shared responsibility for the charity failing to submit its accounts on time, but it did not consider her unfit to be a charity trustee in light of the "sustained deception" she faced. Her legal team revealed that a fake email account had been utilized to impersonate the supermodel. The Charity Commission had banned Campbell in 2024 from overseeing a charity for a period of five years following the identification of "multiple instances of misconduct." However, Campbell herself labeled the finding as "deeply flawed."

In response to the ruling, the Charity Commission maintained that their disqualification of Campbell had been determined based on the "evidence available to us at the time." They acknowledged that the commission, Campbell, and others had been subjected to "sophisticated deception." In 2005, Campbell founded Fashion for Relief, an organization aimed at leveraging the fashion industry to alleviate poverty and enhance health and education by distributing grants to other organizations and providing resources for global catastrophes. The charity was eventually dissolved and removed from the register of charities in 2024.