“Pandoro Gate”: Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni at the heart of a national scandal over Christmas buns

L'influenceuse italienne a été citée par le parquet de Milan dans cette affaire de fraude aggravée. MAXPPP – Pierre Teyssot

Suivie par près de 30 millions de personnes sur ses réseaux sociaux, l'influence italienne Chiara Ferragni fait l’objet d’une enquête pour fraude dans le cadre d’une vente de charité de Pandoro, des brioches traditionnelles de Noël. 

The Italian media refer to it as “Pandoro Gate”. Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni finds herself at the heart of a scandal over the sponsorship she granted to a brand of Pandoro, a traditional Christmas brioche in Italy close to panettone, marketed between ;November and December 2022.

During this campaign, the Italian confectionery company Balocco sold limited edition pink Christmas cakes by Ferragni to support research into osteosarcoma and sarcoma. ;#39;Ewing in favor of the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin.

The influencer considered as "the mother of all influencers", as Courrier International points outhad suggested to its approximately 29.5 million subscribers that by purchasing these cakes, "they would contribute to a donation" for the purchase of new equipment for the treatment of children suffering from bone cancer. 

More than a million euros pocketed

However, the donation, amounting to 50,000 euros, had already been made by Balocco several months before the commercial campaign, indicates the Italian competition watchdog, while two of the companies Chiara Ferragni heads, Fenice and TBS Crew, have raised more than a million euros thanks to this campaign advertising without paying anything to the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin.

The competition watchdog then imposed a fine of 1.4 million euros on the companies owned by the Italian influencer for unfair commercial practice.  

"I'have always acted in good faith"

Chiara Ferragni rejected this Tuesday, January 9, the accusations against her companies, invoking her "good faith"  through her lawyer.

"I am calm because I have always acted in good faith and I am certain that this will emerge from the ongoing investigations", said Chiara Ferragni in a press release sent by her lawyer, who confirmed this Tuesday, January 9 that the Italian influencer had been officially cited by the Milan public prosecutor's office in this case of aggravated fraud.

A procedural step which does not imply guilt, but demonstrates the existence of sufficient evidence to place the person in question under preliminary investigation.

According to information fromEurope 1, Chiara Ferragni is also facing another similar investigation, this time- here on the charity sale of Easter eggs, which according to the newspaper Il Fatto quotidiano would have brought him 500,000 euros in 2021 and 700,000 euros in 2022 , but only 36,000 euros to the charity for children who were to benefit from it.