Naomi Campbell testified that she received a pouch of 'dirty pebbles' from unknown men in the middle of the night at the dinner party at Nelson Mandela's house in 1997.
Turns out the 'dirty stones' were diamonds and the unknown men were sent by Charles Taylor, who is accused of using 'blood diamonds' to fund civil war in Sierra Leone.
Anyway, Naomi testified that she'd given the stones to her friend Jeremy Ratcliffe, the former chief executive of The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, to "do something good with".
Well 'ol Jeremy never did 'do anything good' with the diamonds and instead held on to them for the past 13 years. After his name came up in the trial, Jeremy turned the stones over South African authorities. He has since stepped down from his position.
Today Nelson Mandela's Children's Fund released this statement,
Mr. Ratcliffe regrets his omission to inform the chairperson, CEO and the rest of the board of trustees of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund of his receipt of the uncut diamonds until now. Mr. Ratcliffe has stated that he acted in what he sincerely believed to be in (sic) the best interest of the charity."
