Milan court to try influencer Chiara Ferragni for fraud over charity claims

MILAN (Reuters) - Milan prosecutors on Wednesday sent Italian fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni for trial on fraud charges over allegedly misleading charity claims linked to sales of a Christmas cake and Easter eggs, her lawyers and judicial sources said.

The trial was scheduled to begin on Sept. 23 at a court in Milan. For crimes such as fraud, prosecutors can under Italian law directly order a trial without asking a judge for a preliminary hearing. 

In a statement, Ferragni, 37, called the accusations "deeply unfair", adding that she believed "sincerely that it was not necessary to hold a trial to prove that I never cheated anyone".

A definitive conviction could result in a sentence of between one and five years.

Ferragni, who has nearly 29 million followers on Instagram, was fined almost 1.1 million euros ($1.14 million) in 2023 by Italy's competition authority (AGCM) over sales of Ferragni-branded Pandoro Christmas cakes with packaging mentioning a children's hospital.

She also agreed last year to pay at least 1.2 million euros to a children's charity to settle the case concerning sales of Ferragni-branded Easter eggs.

"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 said in the statement.

In the case of the Ferragni-branded Pandoro, the allegation was that consumers had been duped into thinking that by buying those cakes they were contributing to charity for a children's hospital, the Turin-based Regina Margherita paediatric hospital.

Pandoro is an alternative to the more famous panettone.

In the Easter eggs case, the influencer is charged with misleading buyers into thinking they were supporting the "I Bambini delle Fate" children's charity.

Ferragni, who was facing a slew of negative publicity and cancelled partnerships with other firms, admitted in Dec. 2023 to "a communications error", while Italy's government, in direct response to the controversy, tightened rules on charity giving. 

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Keith Weir)