Davos Forum Investigates Its President's Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

SadaNews - The World Economic Forum, the organizer of the annual Davos summit, announced yesterday evening that it will investigate its CEO's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The former Norwegian Foreign Minister, Børge Brende, who is 60 years old, has served as the president of the World Economic Forum since 2017, which organizes the annual gathering of the wealthy and influential in the Swiss resort of Davos.

The World Economic Forum stated in a statement that it "seeks to clarify what has recently been revealed about its CEO, Børge Brende, and his participation in three business dinner events with Jeffrey Epstein, in addition to subsequent exchanges via email and text messages."

It added that in light of this, "the Board has requested the Audit and Risk Committee to look into the matter, which in turn has decided to initiate an independent review."

The forum indicated that Brende will continue to perform his duties without participating in the review process.

Brende's name appeared more than 60 times in millions of new documents related to Epstein that were released by the U.S. Department of Justice last week.

The mere mention of his name in the files does not necessarily mean that he has committed any violations.

Epstein faced charges of sex trafficking before his suicide in his cell in 2019.

Brende stated in a statement that during a visit to New York in 2018, he received an invitation from former Norwegian Deputy Prime Minister Terje Rød-Larsen to join a dinner with several other leaders, including "a person introduced to me as an American investor, Jeffrey Epstein."

He added, "In the following year, I attended two similar dinners with Epstein alongside diplomats and other business people. These dinners and some email and text messages constituted the extent of my interactions with him."

He continued, "I was not fully aware of Epstein's past and his criminal activities," noting that had he known of his past, he would have declined the initial invitation to dinner and any subsequent invitations or communications."