The Prosecutor’s Office of the Italian city of Milan requested this Tuesday the conviction of one year and eight months in prison for the famous ‘influencer’ Chiara Ferragni, for alleged fraud with the sale of Christmas sweet breads promoted with their brand.
Prosecutor Cristian Barilli asked the judge to condemn the celebrity for aggravated fraudaccording to local media.
Aggravated fraud charges have a sentence of up to five years in prison in Italybut Ferragni is unlikely to go to prison if he receives a sentence of less than two years.
The blogger declared that everything they have done has been «in good faith.» «None of us have profited,» he stressed, in statements collected by the local press upon leaving the court.
Ferragni attended the hearing on Tuesday morning, as did the other two defendants in the process, his collaborator Fabio Damato and the president of the Cerealitalia-ID company, Franco Cannilo.
The next hearing will take place on December 19 and it will be the defense’s turn.
The Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni leaves at the end of the trial hearing where she is charged with aggravated fraud. Photo Claudio Furlan / LaPresse via APThe trial, instructed by abbreviated procedure at the request of the accused herselfbegan last November 4 at the Milan Court and will try to clarify this case that has shaken his life.
The judge then considered the requests of the affected parties to participate in the process, although many were withdrawn after having reached compensation agreements.
Among them was that of a woman who received the 500 euros that she had requested from Ferragni as compensation, since She had felt cheated by considering that she was doing a charitable action by purchasing the products.
Thus, only the association’s request remained Consumer’s Housewhich rejected a settlement offer of 5,000 euros and has requested that a social media campaign be carried out aimed at preventing scams.
The scam in which Chiara Ferragni was involved
Ferragni began her online career in 2009 with a fashion blog titled «The Blonde Salad» and became an internet star who collaborated with brands such as Dior, Chanel or Tod’s.
Their social networks showed a life of glamor with her partner at the time, the rapper Fedez, from whom he separated in 2024.
In 2022 he promoted «Pandoro Pink Christmas», a traditional sweet bread made by Balocco, which supposedly would allow raising funds for children hospitalized in a center in Turin.
Chiara Ferragni in one of the many collaborations she did with the Dior brand. Investigators believe that the Balocco brand sold pandoros with the Ferragni logo for more than 9 euros, triple the usual amount, promising that each sale would include a donation to the Regina Margherita pediatric hospital in Turin (north).
The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) determined at the end of 2023 that a single donation of 50,000 euros ($57,000) had been given to the hospital by Baloccobut months before.
At the end of 2023, The entity imposed a fine of one million euros on two companies linked to Ferragni for unfair commercial practices in this matter and Balocco received a fine of 420,000 euros.
Chiara Ferragni with whom she was her husband until 2024, the Italian rapper Fedez. The AGCM also investigated easter eggs of the Ferragni brand marketed in 2021 and 2022, also related to a charity initiative.
This case forced Ferragni to withdraw from public life and social networks for a long time, after apologizing in a video in which he announced that would return a million euros to the hospital.
The media storm also caused a crisis for her brand and the breakup with her partner and father of her two children, the rapper Fedez.
With information from the EFE and AFP agencies
BPO
