An Italian trend influencer has been acquitted of aggravated fraud, bringing a long-running scandal involving a charity Christmas cake to an finish.
Chiara Ferragni had been accused of deceptive shoppers by selling the sale of a designer pink pandoro in addition to Easter eggs that have been mentioned to be serving to to boost cash for a youngsters’s hospital and a charity.
After a fast-track trial in Milan, a decide discovered her and two different defendants not responsible. Had she been convicted, she may have confronted a jail time period.
Ferragni, 38, informed reporters the judgment marked “the top of a nightmare that lasted two years”.
The scandal – dubbed “pandorogate” – began with the sale of pink particular version Christmas muffins in 2022.
Customers have been led to consider that gross sales of the pandoro would go in the direction of elevating funds for a youngsters’s hospital in Turin. However it turned out that the cake’s producer, Balocco, had given a one-off €50,000 (£43,300) donation to the hospital earlier than the cake’s launch.
Ferragni has 28 million followers on Instagram and, after her corporations made €1m from the promotion, she pledged to donate the identical sum to the hospital.
The outcry led authorities to provoke a proper investigation and the influencer was handed a €1m high quality in 2023 by Italy’s competitors authority over the pandoro muffins, branded along with her identify and mentioning the youngsters’s hospital.
Ferragni-branded Easter eggs additionally turned a part of the scandal, main the influencer to comply with pay €1.2m to a youngsters’s charity to settle complaints that the eggs’ gross sales allegedly misled shoppers.
She was later indicted on the aggravated fraud prices, together with enterprise affiliate Fabio Damato.
Prosecutors had requested for a sentence of 1 yr and eight months in jail for Ferragni however the decide rejected their accusation that the fraud ought to be seen as aggravated.
The Milan court docket discovered that no aggravation had been concerned as a shopper group had withdrawn its unique grievance. Ferragni had agreed with shopper organisation Codacons that she would compensate shoppers and donate cash to a charity for girls who had suffered gender violence.
“We’re all moved,” Ferragni informed reporters on the finish of the trial. “The final two years have been very onerous. I had religion in justice, and justice has been achieved.”
Regardless of her acquittal the scandal has proved damaging to Ferragni’s model and affected her private life. Her marriage to Italian rapper Fedez fell aside final yr.
It has additionally led to tighter guidelines for Italian influencers to indicate higher transparency of their fund-raising initiatives.
