Chiara Ferragni cleared in fraud case — can her…
She’s averted the slammer — but can she go back to a life of glitz and glamour?
One of the world’s largest fashion influencers has been cleared of aggravated fraud in an Italian court; however, her PR nightmare is much from over.
Chiara Ferragni — a 38-year-old bombshell blond who boasts more than 28 million Instagram followers and has been dubbed the “Kim Kardashian of Italy” — was accused of pocketing huge quantities of money while promoting Christmas muffins and Easter eggs marketed for charity.
Chiara Ferragni is pictured after a court look in Milan. The influencer has been cleared of wrongdoing in her aggravated fraud trial. BACKGRID
It stays to be seen whether or not the mom of two can rebrand and rebuild in the wake of the extremely publicized scandal. Getty Images
For more than 15 years, Ferragni has courted hundreds of thousands of followers by flaunting her glamorous life. Chiara Ferragni/Instagram
On Wednesday, following a fast-tracked trial in Milan, a choose discovered Ferragni and two other defendants not guilty, with the sweetness avoiding jail time of up to 5 years.
“I had faith in justice, and justice has been done,” the exonerated influencer told reporters exterior court, including that it marked “the end of a nightmare that lasted two years.”
However, the influencer shouldn’t get too forward of herself.
Ferragni’s image has been severely tarnished by the accusations, and she’s said to have misplaced 90% of her model’s reported $87.5 million worth.
Now, she’ll need to tread rigorously to stage a artful comeback, disaster PR guru Lauren Beeching told The Post
Beeching suggested the influencer start with “a calmer, more measured public presence, consistency in tone, and steady, credible brand partnerships that signal trust without feeling performative.”
“She could start again from the ground up,” disaster PR guru Lauren Beeching beforehand told The Post. AFP via Getty Images
“Strong women who rise up again like a phoenix from the ashes get rewarded again,” one marketing consultant told The Post last yr relating to Ferragni’s scenario. AFP via Getty Images
Italy’s golden woman
Ferragni has been well-known in her home nation for more than 15 years, first garnering online consideration with a weblog back in 2009.
She began showcasing her flashy lifestyle as a pupil, finally incomes enough consideration to drop out of law college to focus on influencing full-time.
“She’s the biggest ‘It’ girl in Italy, literally a household name, and she has a huge walk-in closet with hundreds of Chanel bags,” Sophie Ross Brooks, co-host of the influencer-tracking “Snark Bait” podcast, beforehand told The Post. “And they’re not even organized, just haphazardly thrown together. It’s, like, ‘Omigod, she’s so rich she doesn’t even have to worry about storing her Chanel bags carefully.’ ”
In 2018, Ferragni wed Italian rapper Fedez in a lavish ceremony meticulously documented on Instagram and featured in American Vogue. The couple subsequently had two kids, who also grew to become fixtures on her uber-popular social media accounts. (They separated in 2024).
Through the couple’s earnings, Ferragni constructed up a property portfolio — including a Milanese penthouse and a nation retreat on Lake Como. Amazon Prime Italy tapped her total household to anchor “The Ferragnez,” a hit “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”-style show about the sweetness and her prolonged household, including her two lookalike sisters, Valentina and Francesca.
By the end of 2022, her retail company Fenice Srl — offering ladies’s clothes, jewellery, kidswear, furnishings and more — was price around $87.5 million.
Ferragni also grew to become a fixture at New York Fashion Week, posting photos of herself sitting entrance row at coveted catwalk exhibits, cozying up to Karlie Kloss and “The Real Housewives of New York” star Rebecca Minkoff, and utilizing landmarks just like the Empire State Building as backdrops in enviable Instagram snaps shared with social media followers.
It appeared she was unstoppable.
“She’s the biggest ‘It’ girl in Italy, literally a household name, and she has a huge walk-in closet with hundreds of Chanel bags,” Sophie Ross Brooks, co-host of the influencer-tracking “Snark Bait” podcast, beforehand told The Post. Chiara Ferragni/Instagram
In 2018, Ferragni wed Italian rapper Fedez in a lavish ceremony meticulously documented on Instagram and featured in American Vogue. The couple subsequently had two kids, who also grew to become fixtures on her uber-popular social media accounts.
Fall from grace
For Christmas 2022, Ferragni announced a collaboration with the baked-goods company Balocco to promote a particular festive cake, or pandoro, for charity.
It was thrice pricier than a common model, but Ferragni claimed that the proceeds would go to help the Regina Margherita Children’s Hospital in Turin, Italy.
Almost immediately, Italian media had been suspicious and, before the end of the yr, had revealed damning allegations.
Balocco had donated some money to the hospital — $58,000 — albeit long before the cake went on sale. As for Ferragni, she reportedly pocketed a cool million for her endorsement, or around 20 occasions what went to the sick youngsters.
An alleged fraud was repeated around a comparable scheme with an Easter egg maker, where only $41,650 of the $1.39 million that Ferragni and the producer reportedly earned went to charity
Italian authorities started investigating and finally charged her with aggravated fraud. She earned the doubtful legacy of a statute change named in her dishonor: the Ferragni Law, which threatens fines on any charitable product that doesn’t make clear the precise proportion that will go to a good trigger.
Ferragni issued an apology immediately after the controversies emerged, pledging to donate 1 million euros to the youngsters’s hospital in Turin that was concerned in the Pandoro initiative. She also paid the 1.2 million euros to the group concerned in the Easter egg scandal.
During a court look in November, the influencer said: “Everything we have now accomplished, we have now accomplished in good religion; none of us has profited.
However, she admitted that she had made a “communication error.”
Ferragni is pictured at the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. WireImage
The magnificence (seen in a blue beanie) was a fixture at fashion exhibits around the world. WireImage
Rebuild and rebrand?
A choose could have cleared Ferragani, but her public image will take time to rebuild.
While it received’t be an simple feat, other big names have managed to rebrand and recuperate from public scandals.
Barton Consulting’s Winston Chesterfield says scandal can sometimes humanize well-known figures who tout their too-good-to-be-true lives. For occasion, Jude Law’s messy personal life didn’t preclude him from scoring Dior Homme and Brioni offers, among others.
“It depends on how serious it is, but luxury needs real characters — it can’t rely on models — so the idea brands don’t want to be associated with any kind of controversy? It’s not really true,” he told The Post. “Strong women who rise up again like a phoenix from the ashes get rewarded again.”
Beeching agrees.
“The court of public opinion always lags behind legal outcomes,” she acknowledged. “Given the scale and loyalty of her audience, I am confident she will move on from this.”
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