World Economic Forum chairman resigns. His name mentioned in the “Epstein files”

The President and CEO of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos Berge Brende has reported his resignation. He had held the position since 2017.

Reuters writes about this.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to step down as President and CEO of the WEF. My time here, which has spanned eight and a half years, has been extremely rewarding. And I believe that now is the right time for the Forum to continue its important work without distractions,” Brende said in a statement to the media on February 26.

Brende reported his decision to resign a few weeks after the forum launched an independent investigation into his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Documents related to Epstein released by the US Department of Justice mentioned that Brende had dinner with the financier three times, as well as exchanging emails and text messages with him.

Forum co-chairs Andre Hoffmann and Larry Fink announced on February 26 that an independent review of Brendeʼs ties to Epstein had been completed — it found nothing suspicious beyond the information already made public.

Alois Zwingli will serve as interim President and CEO of the World Economic Forum.

The Jeffrey Epstein case

American financier Jeffrey Epstein was first arrested in 2008. He was convicted of sex with minors and organizing prostitution. After 13 months in prison, the financier made a deal with prosecutors and was released. In 2019, he was charged with new charges of human trafficking.

At the time, it was reported that the FBI had discovered thousands of names of famous people in Epsteinʼs notebook, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “Rolling Stones” frontman Mick Jagger, and billionaire Richard Branson. This sparked a series of accusations and suspicions against famous people that they may have used Epsteinʼs services.

Epstein was arrested a second time on July 7, and on August 10, 2019, he committed suicide in prison. In December 2023, a US court ordered the release of the names of more than 170 people from Epsteinʼs inner circle.

Donald Trump has also been accused of having ties to Epstein. Trump and Epstein were allegedly friends and attended the same parties in the 1990s. However, Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against journalists who covered this information.

In November, it became known that dozens of references to Ukraine were found among Jeffrey Epsteinʼs documents. Among other things, the names of politician Oleksandr Vilkul and former President Leonid Kuchma appear there.

On December 19, the US Department of Justice released the first selection of the “Epstein files”. Among the tens of thousands of documents that were censored are many photos of famous people. Less than a day after the publication, at least 16 files related to Epstein disappeared from the US Department of Justice website. Among them was a photo with Trump.

The US Department of Justice published a new set of documents on January 30. They found information that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection after communicating with "Russian girls", and that Epstein helped him purchase medication.

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