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The founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, allegedly manipulated the organization’s research to favor governments, according to Whistleblower’s claims that led to his resignation as chairman of the organization on Easter weekend.
The indictment was one of the several included in a whistle letter sent to Wef’s trusted board last week that made the organization launch an investigation, and made Schwab criticize former kicks to respond to “calm” and “unfounded” claims without giving him a chance to respond.
In a statement circulated Wednesday, Schwab said he was the victim of a “character killing” and denied all claims against him, which also included allegations he misused Wef funds and urged staff to promote him for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The anonymous letter of anonymous whistle claimed that Schwab undermined Wef’s integrity by manipulating “his global competition report”, which lists countries with their productivity and resistance and forms the basis of discussions at his annual Davos meeting for world leaders and leading leaders.
Schwab denied allegations that he changed the methodology in the report after accessing governments dissatisfied with their rankings.
“I developed the methodology for the competition report initially in 1979 and remain its intellectual leader,” Schwab wrote on Wednesday. “Over the years I continued to engage with the methodology to improve and maintain the credibility of the report. This created conceptual discussions sometimes intense.
“Some governments contacted me by providing corrections to take into account updated data or to correct the flaws in the analysis. I switched to this information to the teams. To build this as manipulation is an insult to my academic attitude.”
The new whistle claims come to the top of others made last year claiming that Schwab led a toxic culture at the Workplace at Wef, where sexual harassment was not properly investigated and black and female employees suffered discrimination.
In March, Wef reported to sponsors that an investigation “did not find that the Forum had committed any legal violations” and “did not prove” claims of improper behavior against him.
Financial Times reported earlier this month that Schwab had told Wef that he would begin the process of leaving as chairman of the trusted board until January 2027, but new claims explode that plan.
In a statement on Tuesday, Wef declined to comment in detail on the latest allegations against Schwab until the new investigation is completed, beyond that “while the forum takes these claims seriously, she points out that they remain unproven.”
Schwab denied allegations that he and his wife Hilde had misused Wef’s resources using the organization’s property property, fundraising that personal trip and asking the new staff “attracting thousands of dollars from ATMs in his name”.
He called him a “pure lie” and said he had launched a lawsuit for defamation against his anonymous accusers.
In his statement, Schwab also responded to a claim he used to use Wef’s staff to lobby for a Nobel Peace Prize. “Despite what was insinuated here, I have repeatedly asked people who wanted me not to do it,” he said.
Schwab did not respond to a comment request.
