Klaus Schwab Accused

German World Economic Forum founder, 87, is accused of bullying staff, filing huge travel expenses and making 'suggestive' remarks to female exec in bombshell internal probe

Founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab reportedly exhibited a pattern of misconduct during his tenure as the multinational organisation's most senior executive, according to preliminary findings of an internal investigation. 

The probe was launched by the WEF board in April in response to whistleblower complaints over alleged unauthorised spending, bullying and inappropriate treatment of female staffers by 87-year-old Schwab.

It came just two days after the German economist - who denies the claims - stepped down from his role as the Forum's top executive with immediate effect after 55 years over Easter weekend. 

Preliminary findings from the probe are said to have found evidence that Schwab had acted inappropriately in his role, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal based on documents and interviews with people familiar with the investigation.

Investigators also claim Schwab doctored data for the firm's flagship Global Competitiveness report because he was worried the findings showed Britain has risen up the rankings post-Brexit while India has slumped.

Schwab reportedly didn't want to Britons to think leaving the European Union had been successful.   

Interviews conducted amid the probe reportedly found that Schwab repeatedly used fear and intimidation to manipulate WEF employees and treated the organisation like a 'fiefdom', while making 'suggestive' remarks to a senior female executive. 

The findings also allege Schwab and his wife Hilde, 79, reportedly filed more than $1 million in travel expenses deemed questionable by investigators, along with several foreign trips seemingly unrelated to business. 

Schwab, through an intermediary, rejected the probe's preliminary findings, according to WSJ. 'Throughout this journey, Hilde and I never used the Forum for personal enrichment,' Schwab said in a written statement.

MailOnline has contacted WEF for comment. 

World Economic Forum founder and former chairman Klaus Schwab attends a session during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos

Klaus Schwab and Hilda Schwab at the Transatlantic Bridge Award Gala in New York City

US President Donald Trump speaks with Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF)

Davos, Switzerland. WEF holds an annual summit in the Swiss Alpine region

Founded by Schwab in 1971 as the European Management Forum, WEF began as a small gathering aimed at improving European business by enlisting the support of successful American corporations. 

Over the decades, it has transformed into a high-profile annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, where CEOs, leading entrepreneurs and minds from various sectors converge to debate the world's biggest challenges, from climate change and technological disruption to geopolitical instability and inequality.

It has also been harshly criticised as a symbol of globalisation and an exclusive club for the wealthy and powerful that exercises outsized power over policymakers.

The probe was launched by the WEF after the WSJ published allegations that the Schwab family had long mixed their personal affairs with Forum resources.

The Forum said its board - which includes former US Vice President Al Gore, Jordan's Queen Rania and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde as members - agreed to a decision by its risk and audit committee to open the probe.

The allegations emerged days after Schwab's retirement as WEF chairman and his replacement by former Nestle Chairman and CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.

Homburger, a Swiss law firm enlisted to lead the probe, is expected to weigh Schwab's response before finalising its findings and presenting recommendations to WED trustees by the end of August.

According to people familiar with the process, the full board of trustees will then submit the report to Swiss regulators who oversee nonprofits for further investigation, and may also decide to hand over details to prosecutors.

Meanwhile, Schwab's representatives confirmed to the Financial Times that the 87-year-old has filed a criminal complaint against the whistleblowers' 'stupid and constructed' allegations.

Klaus Schwab speaking with Britain's King Charles

Swiss Federal President Karin Keller-Sutter (L) shakes hands with Founder and executive chairman of the Board of Trustees of the WEF Klaus Schwab (R) and his spouse Hilde Schwab (2R) next to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

The bombshell allegations brought against Schwab come off the back of mounting speculation over the purpose of the yearly WEF summit in the Swiss Alps. 

The organisation bills itself as the world's leading forum for 'public-private cooperation' and stresses its commitment to 'facilitating progress on systemic challenges... upholding the highest standards of governance and moral and intellectual integrity'. 

But detractors say the summit is little more than a networking event for the world's wealthiest corporate leaders and political decision-makers which serves only to increase the influence of private companies to shape public policy. 

In 2024 - the year WEF's summit was focused around 'rebuilding trust', Oxfam released a report highlighting wealth inequality continues to grow. 

The report released in January last year pointed out that the combined fortunes of the world's five richest men had more than doubled to $869 billion since 2020, while five billion people have been made poorer.

It estimated that 148 top corporations made $1.8 trillion in profits, 52 per cent up on the 3-year average, allowing hefty pay-outs to shareholders even as millions of workers faced a cost-of-living crisis as inflation led to wage cuts in real terms.

'This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,' said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

Tales of debauchery and excess in Davos have also been widely reported. 

Escort agencies revealed the demand for prostitutes and sex parties around the conference has increased dramatically in recent years, with event attendees stipulating that their sex workers must sign NDAs.

'Since the start of the WEF, we've seen around 300 women and trans women booked in Davos and the surrounding area,' Andreas Berger, spokesman for Titt4tat, told MailOnline earlier this year, versus 140 women the year prior.

'What has changed is that a lot of women in and around Davos now have to sign NDAs [non-disclosure agreements.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14932943/German-World-Economic-Forum-founder-87-accused-bullying-staff-filing-huge-travel-expenses-making-suggestive-remarks-female-exec-bombshell-internal-probe.html

World Economic Forum 'rigged data' to make Brexit look like a failure

A major international financial body has been accused of rigging data in order to make Brexit seem like a failure. 

Klaus Schwab, 87, the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), is alleged to have asked staff to lower the UK's standing in a table ranking countries' economic productivity, the Financial Times reported.  

Published annually, the WEF's 2017/2018 Global Competitiveness Report should have shown the UK jumping from seventh to forth due to a change in how the data was presented, according to a leak published by Swiss newpaper SonntagsZeitung.

But instead the final table showed Britain falling one position to eight place. 

'Brexit... will by definition weaken the UK's markets component,' the report said. 

It is alleged the reason for the supposed revised ranking was a direct intervention from Mr Schwab. 

The Swiss newspaper reported that he wrote to staff to say that the UK 'must not see any improvement' as such results would be 'exploited by the Brexit camp' to claim the UK's departure from the EU was a success. 

The World Economic Forum is an international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Geneva, Switzerland, which hosts the annual 'Davos' summit which attracts high-profile figures from the world of politics, business and showbusiness each year. 

It was founded in January 1971 by Mr Schwab, initially as the European Management Forum, before being rebranded as the WEF in 1987. 

Brexit supporters dressed in Union flag-themed clothes

Mr Schwab is also accused of submitting personal expenses to the tune of £835,000 that was not sufficiently linked to his duties at the WEF, where he stood down as chairman in April this year. 

Additionally there are claims that he made inappropriate remarks to younger members of staff.  

The spate of allegations against him stem from an internal Forum probe launched following complaints made by a whistleblower. 

The investigation was conducted by Homburger, a law firm in Zurich.  

News of the UK's alleged changed ranking was met with fury by some of the key figures behind the Brexit campaign. 

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told The Telegraph: 'Every conspiracy theory about Klaus Schwab now turns out to be true. He is a dangerous globalist manipulator.'

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel added: 'For such a senior figure in geopolitical affairs to have conspired and manipulated information against Brexit and the democratic outcome of a political process is a stain on the reputation of the WEF and those who are part of that forum, and it is thoroughly unacceptable.' 

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called Mr Schwab, whose organisation hosts the annual Davos summit, 'a dangerous globalist manipulator'

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Schwab said he felt 'deceived' since he claimed to have cooperated with the inquiry on the basis that neither side would speak to the media.

'I feel deceived,' Mr Schwab said. 'I am not available for further investigations.'

Interviews conducted amid the probe into his behaviour reportedly found that Schwab repeatedly used fear and intimidation to manipulate WEF employees and treated the organisation like a 'fiefdom', while making 'suggestive' remarks to a senior female executive. 

The findings also allege Schwab and his wife Hilde, 79, reportedly filed more than $1 million in travel expenses deemed questionable by investigators, along with several foreign trips seemingly unrelated to business. 

Founded by Schwab in 1971 as the European Management Forum, WEF began as a small gathering aimed at improving European business by enlisting the support of successful American corporations. 

Over the decades, it has transformed into a high-profile annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, where CEOs, leading entrepreneurs and minds from various sectors converge to debate the world's biggest challenges, from climate change and technological disruption to geopolitical instability and inequality.

It has also been harshly criticised as a symbol of globalisation and an exclusive club for the wealthy and powerful that exercises outsized power over policymakers.

The World Economic Forum have been approached for comment.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14927213/World-Economic-Forum-rigged-data-Brexit-failure.html

Prostitutes gather in Davos for annual meeting of global elite - where demand for sexual services rockets during economic summit

• Prostitutes report a surge in business during the annual gathering of leaders
• Escorts are booked into delegates' hotels alongside business executives
• Sex workers dress in business attire and rub shoulders with the global elite 

Salome Balthus, a sex worker and writer, staying at a hotel near Davos during the summit

Demand for sex work skyrockets each year at the meeting of world leaders and business tycoons

Alain Berset, president of Switzerland, Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission and World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, pose together

The narrow streets of the pretty Alpine town of Davos are clogged with blacked-out limousines as the world's super-rich and shameless descend for the World Economic Forum

Davos has become little more than an excuse for indulgence on a truly global scale. Pictured, from left, Kevin Spacey, Bono and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pose for a selfie in Davos, Switzerland

Zurich airport gets swamped with the arrival of scores of private planes as the great and the good jet in from all over the world before being ferried to Davos in a fleet of their own helicopters Pictured, helicopters land on the helipad at the InterContinental Hotel Davos

Greta Thunberg attending the World Economic Forum at Davos

Thunberg making her first of two speaking appearances at the World Economic Forum