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The founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, has manipulated the organization’s research to stall the favor of governments, according to the denunciation affirmations which led to his resignation as president of the organization during the Easter weekend.
The accusation was one of the several contents in a letter of denunciation sent to the board of directors of the WEF last week which led the organization to launch an investigation, and prompted Schwab to criticize the former colleagues to react to “slanderous” and “unresolved” allegations without giving it a chance to respond.
In a statement circulated on Wednesday, Schwab said he was the victim of an “murder assassination” and denied all the allegations against him, which also included allegations that he abused WEF funds and asked the staff to promote him for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The anonymous letter of the denunciators said that Schwab had undermined the integrity of the WEF by manipulating its “global competitiveness report”, which classifies the countries by their productivity and their resilience and constitutes the basis of discussions at its annual Davos meeting for world leaders and heads of management.
Schwab denied the assertions that he changed the methodology of the report after the approaches of the displeased governments of their ranking.
“I developed the methodology of the competitiveness report originally in 1979 and I remain its intellectual leader,” wrote Schwab on Wednesday. “Over the years, I have continued to get involved with the methodology to improve and maintain the credibility of the report. This has generated sometimes intensive conceptual discussions.
“Some governments have contacted me to offer corrections to take into account the updated data or to correct the defects of the analysis. I sent this information to the teams. To build this as manipulation, it is an insult to my academic position. ”
The new allegations of denunciation are on the run of other people last year, alleging that Schwab chaired a toxic culture in the workplace at the WEF, where sexual harassment has not been properly investigated and black and female employees have suffered discrimination.
In March, the WEF reported to sponsors that an investigation “had not noted that the forum had committed legal violations” and “did not justify” allegations of fault against him.
The Financial Times reported earlier this month that Schwab had declared to the WEF that he would begin the resignation process of the chairman of the board of directors by January 2027, but the new complaints have exploded this plan.
In a statement on Tuesday, WEF refused to comment on the latest accusations against Schwab until the new investigation is concluded, beyond saying that “although the forum takes these allegations seriously, it emphasizes that they are not proven”.
Schwab denied the assertions that he and his wife Hilde had abused WEF resources by making personal use of the organization’s properties, making personal trips finance and asking the subordinate staff to “withdraw thousands of dollars from automatic ticket distributors on his behalf”.
He called it a “pure lie” and said that he had launched a defamation pursuit against his anonymous accusers.
In his declaration, Schwab also responded to an assertion that he used the WEF staff to put pressure for a Nobel Peace Prize. “Contrary to what is insinuated here, I asked people who wanted me to do several times,” he said.
Schwab did not respond to a request for comments.
