In 1997 Nelson Mandela hosted a private dinner for celebrities and statesmen in South Africa. Among the attendees was supermodel Naomi Campbell and Liberian dictator and warlord Charles Taylor. Taylor was so smitten by the supermodel that he attempted to flirt with her and later, in the middle of the night, two men knocked on her door and delivered to her a bag full of uncut diamonds worth a fortune.
The next morning Naomi Campbell told friends and other celebrities what had happened over breakfast, including actress Mia Farrow who later retold the story.
What happened afterwards becomes foggy. The sale of blood diamonds from the war zone is highly illegal. The diamonds were supposedly a gift from Charles Taylor, but they were arguably a curse for the "none too smart" Naomi Campbell who claims she didn't even know there was such a thing as conflict diamonds or blood diamonds.“I didn't know anything about Charles Taylor. I didn't know anything about Liberia. I had never heard of blood diamonds,” says Campbell.
Note: As a fashion supermodel Naomi Campbell has access to people who could sell and cut the diamonds.
In April 2010 she denied receiving any diamonds to reporters. “I didn't receive a diamond and I'm not going to speak about that,” said Campbell, before punching a camera and fleeing reporters.
For years Naomi Campbell denied ever receiving the diamonds. But she eventually admitted receiving the diamonds and was later subpoenaed and forced to appear before a war crimes trial for Charles Taylor or face 7 years in prison for refusing to testify. Campbell’s claims that she had never heard of Liberia were met by laughs in the court gallery.
Naomi Campbell claims she gave them to Nelson Mandela's children's charity, but the charity strongly denies that ever happened.
When that failed, she claimed she had given the diamonds to the director of the charity. He too, denies ever meeting Naomi Campbell or receiving any diamonds from her.
Its alleged Naomi Campbell may have sold the bag of diamonds for Charles Taylor, either pocketing the money for herself or giving some of the money back to Charles Taylor who then used it to buy guns and ammo for the decades long civil war in Liberia.
Naomi Campbell has a long history of being erratic and lying. When she's not high on coke, she is assaulting a police officer at London’s Heathrow Airport when the airport lost her luggage in 2008, assaulting her personal assistant / maid in 2000 and again in 2007.
If found guilty of perjury Naomi Campbell would face prison time.
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