Italian fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni could spend up to five years behind bars if convicted for aggravated fraud.
Ferragni, 38, was indicted in Italy in January for allegedly misleading a handful of charity campaigns. In the charges, the social media personality was accused of falsely suggesting that the proceeds of her sponsored Christmas Pandoro cake would benefit a local children’s hospital. She subsequently denied the accusations.
“We remain firmly convinced that this matter has no criminal relevance and that every controversial element has already been addressed and resolved before the AGCM,” her lawyers Giuseppe Iannaccone and Marcello Bana told Reuters in a statement shared at the time.
Reuters further reported that Ferragni was fined nearly $1.1 million by the country’s Competition Authority (AGCM), which she agreed to pay.
“We realized that some internal analysis processes could have been handled better. We’re working to improve some organizational aspects,” Ferragni told Italy’s Corriere Milano newspaper in a 2024 interview after the initial claims made headlines that same year. “I’ve always thought that if you have 30 million followers, if you do charity work and talk about it, you create an emulation effect.”
Ferragni further revealed that she and her husband, Federico Leonardo Lucia (better known as rapper Fedez), previously donated 50,000 euros to local hospitals in 2020.
“By communicating it, crowdfunding produced the best results in Europe, raising 4.5 million euros, which we were able to donate to an intensive care unit in a month and a half,” Ferragni recalled. “Following our example, others have set up similar operations in support of other hospitals. My rationale was that, within commercial operations between my companies and a partner, it was simply a good idea to try and add a small charitable component to [a] contract.”
Ferragni, who shares two children with 36-year-old Fedez, stressed that every cake label read, “Chiara Ferragni and Balocco support the hospital” instead of directly revealing how the proceeds would be donated.
“One should not confuse the individual, Chiara Ferragni, with the brand and the companies. Furthermore, without the [company], there would have been no donation,” she said. “To me, the important thing was to make the donation.”
Ferragni’s trial began in September and is set to continue through November. A fraud conviction in Italy carries a jail sentence of one to five years in prison as well as a hefty fine in euros.
Ferragni currently has amassed more than 28 million followers on Instagram and also runs her eponymous fashion and beauty brands. In addition, she created the “Blonde Salad” blog and the TBS Crew marketing agency.
“The future remains a question mark,” she admitted to Corriere Milano. “I don’t know if my job is something I’ll do for the rest of my life or if I’ll want to recount my life forever. I know that I have always liked communicating. At 16, I used to go around with a tripod, take self-portraits, I wanted to see myself through the camera lens and give myself a meaning. There was never the idea of keeping those photos for myself, but always of sharing them with the world and seeing that people thought of them, both good and bad.”
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