Campbell settles court case

Naomi Campbell and a perfume company have settled a dispute that started over a fragrance line and became part of the backdrop of former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial.

Duelling lawsuits between the supermodel and an entity called Moodform Mission were closed, Manhattan court records show.

Moodform Mission’s lawyer, Daniel R. Bright, said his clients “are happy with the settlement”, but he would not disclose details.

Campbell’s lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The dispute involves Campbell’s long-time former modelling agent, Carole White, who joined with a Miami Beach, Florida-based cosmetics company to form Moodform Mission in the 1990s.

Her New York court fight with the model was mentioned at Taylor’s 2010 war crimes trial, at which Ms White contradicted the model’s testimony about some alleged blood diamonds – gems used to finance wars – she received from the former Liberian president.

Taylor was convicted of arming and supporting murderous rebels in Sierra Leone in return for blood diamonds; he was sentenced in May to 50 years in prison. He plans to appeal against his conviction.

At his trial in the Netherlands, Campbell said she did not know the source of the stones presented to her after a dinner at former South African president Nelson Mandela’s mansion in 1997, or even that they were diamonds. She gave them to a friend to donate to charity.

When Ms White took the stand and insisted that Campbell knew Taylor had provided the stones, Taylor’s lawyer accused Ms White of lying to further her lawsuit over the perfume fallout. Ms White denied it.

In the perfume suit, Moodform Mission said it was unfairly squeezed out of its share of millions of dollars in profits from such scents as Naomi Campbell, Cat Deluxe and Seductive Elixir after working for years to line up a 1998 fragrance deal for Campbell.

The agreement called for regular payments to Moodform Mission once the scents went on the market in 2001, netting Campbell millions of dollars over the years, according to the company’s lawsuit.

It said Campbell violated the contract by inking a new fragrance-licensing agreement in 2008.

The new deal “was a fraudulent scheme arranged by (Campbell) for the purpose of avoiding her obligation to pay Moodform Mission the money required to be paid to it”, said the suit, filed in 2009.

Campbell, meanwhile, said she was not given full information before signing her deal with Moodform Mission. She said she did not know for years that Ms White - her chief agent from 1993 until about 2006 – had a stake in the perfume partnership.

“If White had told me that she was a principal in (Moodform Mission), I would not have blindly trusted her advice to sign the documents that she brought to me,” Campbell said in a sworn statement last year. “... White held a position of trust and confidence in my life, and I expected her to act in my best interests (and never to benefit if this would be detrimental to my interests).”

Briton Campbell, now 41, became one of the world’s highest-paid models after being discovered at the age of 15.