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Naomi Campbell’s charity to close mid-investigation

14 Mar 2024 News

Fashion for Relief logo

Fashion for Relief, a charity set up by model Naomi Campbell, is set to be dissolved tomorrow unless cause is shown for it not to be. 

The Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into Fashion for Relief in 2021 after it filed its accounts late for four years and failed to show that conflicts of interest were being managed appropriately. 

In March 2022, the Commission used its legal powers to instate two interim managers to the exclusion of trustees. 

Edwina Turner and Phill Watts from Anthony Collins Solicitors were discharged from their roles in December.

A message on the regulator’s entry for Fashion for Relief from 15 December states: “The Commission intends to dissolve this CIO after three months from the date of this notice unless cause is shown to the contrary.”

Representations against the Commission’s decision must have been made within this three-month period. 

A Charity Commission spokesperson told Civil Society: “We can confirm that the Commission appointed interim managers of Fashion for Relief have applied for its removal from the register of charities on the basis that it no longer operates.

“Our statutory inquiry into the charity is ongoing and, as such, we cannot comment further at this time.”

According to the charity’s accounts ending July 2020, trustee and lawyer Bianka Hellmich received £106,000 in consultancy fees and over £65,000 in travel expenses for the year. 

A charity also reported that it had not received thousands of pounds in promised funds from Fashion for Relief.

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