Naomi Campbell has admitted to failing in her role as trustee of the charity she founded, Fashion For Relief. Despite this, the supermodel maintains she has never been guilty of financial misconduct.
Campbell’s statement comes after a report published last week by the UK charity watchdog, the Charity Commission, found serious cases of misconduct and financial mismanagement at Fashion For Relief.
The regulator accuses Campbell of using hundreds of thousands of euros from the organisation’s coffers for personal expenses, which has banned her from running a charity for five years.
A spokesperson for Campbell tells The Guardian that the model “accepts her responsibility”, adding that she “may not” have been as actively involved in the charity’s day-to-day operations as she should have been, but insists that she herself has “never” been involved in any form of financial misconduct.
Fashion For Relief was closed down by the Charity Commission earlier this year after the regulator concluded that only 8.5 percent of the money raised actually went to good causes. In addition to Campbell, two other board members have also been banned from board positions at charities in England and Wales for several years.