The founder of the World Economic Forum is firing back after a bombshell investigation accused him of cooking economic reports and billing over a million dollars in questionable expenses.
Klaus Schwab, the 87-year-old architect of Davos and the WEF’s global elite gatherings, slammed the organization’s board of trustees on Sunday, accusing them of breaking a confidentiality deal by letting media outlets get wind of the allegations.
“I am in a position to refute all the accusations brought up against me,” Schwab said in a statement after Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung detailed preliminary findings from a law firm’s probe.
The investigation, conducted by Swiss law firm Homburger and ordered by the WEF’s own board, reportedly found that Schwab interfered with the forum’s flagship economic rankings to favor political allies and avoid controversy – and submitted 900,000 Swiss francs (about $1.1 million) in expenses that investigators say lacked proper justification.
Three months ago we reported that Schwab was under investigation by the WEF after a whistleblower alleged financial and ethical misconduct by Mr. “eat the bugs” and his wife.
In an anonymous letter from sent to the board of directors by ‘current and former Forum employees,’ Schwab and his wife are accused of commingling their personal affairs with WEF resources without proper oversight, and much more…
Among the most serious allegations:
- Schwab asked junior employees to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf and used Forum funds to pay for private, in-room massages at hotels.
- His wife Hilde, a former Forum employee, scheduled “token” Forum-funded meetings in order to justify luxury holiday travel at the organization’s expense.
- The letter also raises concerns about how Klaus Schwab treated female employees and how his leadership over decades allegedly allowed instances of sexual harassment and other discriminatory behavior to go unchecked in the workplace
Other allegations include the Schwab family’s use of Villa Mundi – a luxury property bought before the pandemic by the Forum located next to the organization’s Geneva headquarters, which the whistleblower letter maintains that Hilde Schwab maintains tight control over, and which the forum paid $30 million to purchase and another $20 million to renovate – also overseen by Hilde.
Hellbound and Down 