World Economic Forum Opens Probe Into CEO Over Epstein Meetings
(Bloomberg) — The World Economic Forum has opened a probe into Chief Executive Officer Borge Brende over his ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein after evidence of meetings between the two men emerged in the US Department of Justice’s massive release of documents over the weekend.
Citing revelations about “three business dinners” Brende attended along with Epstein, as well as email and text exchanges, the board said it decided to initiate an independent review of the matter.
“This decision underscores the Forum’s commitment to transparency and maintaining its integrity,” the Geneva-based institution said in a statement, adding that Brende “fully supports, and cooperates with, this review, having indeed requested it himself.” He will remain CEO but will not be involved in the review process.
The latest release of the Epstein files shows Brende arranging to meet Epstein at the latter’s home for dinner in New York, according to email correspondence in both 2018 and 2019.
In a statement circulated by the Forum, Brende said that the first dinner was at the invitation of a Norwegian diplomat. The subsequent meals were attended by other diplomats and business leaders. Those meals “and a few emails and SMS messages, were the extent of my interactions,” he continued.
The files also revealed direct text message exchanges between Brende and Epstein, one of which Brende signs off saying: “Missing you Sir, Borge.”
In another, Epstein writes “Bad news. Is every time I see mss piggy. I will think of ou,” shortly after he sent what appears to be an image of a person with long blonde hair. The image is partially blacked out. Brende replies: “I will live with that. Better to be remembered than forgotten.”
“I was completely unaware of Epstein’s past and criminal activities,” Brende said in his statement. “Had I known about his background, I would have declined the initial invitation” to dinner “and any subsequent dinner invitations or other communications.”
“I recognize that I could have conducted a more thorough investigation into Epstein’s history, and I regret not doing so.”
The Forum’s probe comes less than two weeks after its annual meeting in Davos wrapped up. At the conference which attracts the world’s policymaking and business elite, Brende was front and center. The former Norwegian foreign minister hosted a Q&A with Donald Trump following the US president’s controversial speech to delegates.
The Forum, which boasted of a record attendance this year, was hoping to put more than a year of scandal behind it in 2026. Founder Klaus Schwab abruptly resigned from the WEF in April after the board launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct, sparking a nasty clash.
Schwab was cleared, but the investigation found that the Forum’s governance needed an overhaul, which it pledged at the time to do.
Brende has been WEF president and CEO since 2017, giving him an operational leadership role for much of that time a notch below Schwab’s overall direction of the Forum. BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink and Roche Holding AG vice chairman Andre Hoffmann were announced as Forum co-chairs in August until a permanent replacement can be found.
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