Supermodel Naomi Campbell has won her appeal against a five-year ban from serving as a charity trustee after a UK tribunal found that she had been deceived about serious financial misconduct at Fashion for Relief, the charity she founded.
The First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) overturned the disqualification on Thursday, October 1, 2026, while confirming that serious misconduct and mismanagement had taken place within the organisation. The three-person panel found that the most serious financial wrongdoing had been concealed from Campbell by fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich.
The ruling brings an end to Campbell’s legal challenge against the Charity Commission, which had imposed the five-year disqualification in 2024 after investigating Fashion for Relief.
The tribunal did not dispute the regulator’s findings that the charity had suffered serious financial and governance problems. Instead, it examined whether Campbell herself had been sufficiently responsible for the misconduct to justify removing her from serving as a charity trustee.
The judges concluded that she had not.
“There was serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity she founded, Fashion for Relief,” the tribunal said.
“However, 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.”
The Charity Commission launched its investigation into Fashion for Relief in 2021. The regulator later found multiple instances of misconduct and mismanagement before dissolving the charity and removing it from the register in 2024.
Among the issues identified was the use of charity funds for expenses connected to Campbell’s stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes in 2018. The spending included spa treatments, room service and cigarettes.
The investigation also found that Hellmich, who served as a trustee, received about £290,000 in unauthorised payments described as consultancy fees.
The findings led the Charity Commission to disqualify Campbell from acting as a charity trustee for five years. Hellmich received a nine-year disqualification, while another trustee, Veronica Chou, received a four-year ban.
Campbell subsequently challenged her disqualification at the First-tier Tribunal, arguing that she had not knowingly participated in the financial wrongdoing.
During the four-day hearing in June, Campbell told the tribunal that she had trusted Hellmich, whom she believed was a qualified lawyer.
Campbell’s case centred on the claim that Hellmich had concealed the charity’s financial activities from her and had used forged documents and a fake email address.
The tribunal accepted that Hellmich had used forged documents and had deceived professional advisers as well as the Charity Commission. It found that Campbell had no reasonable basis to suspect Hellmich’s dishonesty before regulatory concerns emerged.
The judges said Campbell “was not involved in, and did not know of, that conduct.”
During the hearing, Campbell described her experience as a betrayal of the trust she had placed in her fellow trustee.
“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.
She also described her “only mistake” as trusting Hellmich, who she alleged had forged her signature and misrepresented her professional credentials.
The tribunal found Campbell’s evidence and conduct to have been honest and concluded that she had taken reasonable steps once concerns about the charity emerged.
Although the tribunal overturned the ban, it did not find Campbell completely without responsibility for the charity’s governance problems. The judges said she shared ultimate responsibility for Fashion for Relief’s failure to keep proper minutes and file its accounts on time.
However, they ruled that those administrative failures did not make her unfit to serve as a charity trustee, particularly in the context of what the tribunal described as the “sustained deception” she had faced.
The ruling therefore distinguished between Campbell’s administrative shortcomings and the more serious financial misconduct that the tribunal attributed to Hellmich.
The tribunal also specifically found that Campbell was not responsible for the inappropriate use of the charity’s resources or unjustified expenditure during her 2018 hotel stay.
Following the judgment, Campbell expressed relief and gratitude to the tribunal.
“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,” she said.
The supermodel said the experience had affected her personally because charitable work had been an important part of her life.
“Giving back has been part of who I am, so having that questioned hurt deeply,” Campbell said.
She added that she could now return her attention to supporting the communities and causes she has worked with over the years.
The Charity Commission had opposed Campbell’s appeal and argued that the five-year ban should remain in place. Following the tribunal’s decision, the regulator said it was considering whether the judgment had wider implications for its regulatory work.
The commission also pointed to its intervention in Fashion for Relief, saying almost £250,000 owed to other charities was ultimately recovered and passed to intended beneficiaries.
Fashion for Relief was founded by Campbell to raise money for humanitarian causes through high-profile fundraising events and fashion shows. The organisation was dissolved after the Charity Commission’s investigation.
