Children's Health Defense
The World Economic Forum (WEF) opened an investigation into founder Klaus Schwab after a whistleblower alleged financial and ethical misconduct, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday.
The news broke soon after the organization announced Monday that Schwab was stepping down as chairman “with immediate effect” from the organization he founded in 1971 and led for more than half a century.
The WSJ reported that a whistleblower letter sent by current and former staff last week to the WEF board alleged that Schwab and his wife, Hilde Schwab, “mixed their personal affairs with the Forum’s resources.”
The whistleblower also alleged that the Schwabs funded luxury travel and services at the WEF’s expense, misused WEF property, and that Klaus Schwab asked junior employees to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf.
Schwab denied the allegations and said he would challenge them in a lawsuit, unnamed sources within the WEF told the WSJ. He said through a spokesperson that he will also file lawsuits against “anybody who spreads these mistruths.”
The board opened its investigation during an emergency meeting on Sunday. The 87-year-old Schwab decided to resign immediately rather than stay for an extended transition period as originally planned, the WSJ reported.
Whistleblower allegations ‘blew up’ Schwab’s retirement timeline
Schwab first announced he was stepping down as the WEF’s executive chairman last year, but remained nonexecutive chair.
Last month, following a different investigation by the board into Davos’ workplace culture, Schwab announced he would also step down as nonexecutive chair, although the process to replace him was set to go through 2027.
The workplace culture investigation was prompted by a WSJ report that revealed allegations by employees of discrimination against women and Black employees at the Geneva-based WEF. Schwab and the WEF refuted those allegations.
The new whistleblower allegations “blew up” Schwab’s original retirement timeline by prompting the new investigation, the WSJ reported.
A WEF spokesperson said Wednesday in a statement, also reported by Politico, that the organization’s board of trustees had “unanimously supported the Audit and Risk Committee’s decision to initiate an independent investigation following a whistleblower letter containing allegations against former Chairman Klaus Schwab.”
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