This Thursday, February 26, Borge Brende, executive director of the World Economic Forum, announced his resignation weeks after the organization launched an independent investigation into his alleged ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

First modification: 02/26/2026 - 16:54 Last modification: 02/26/2026 - 17:04

The Jeffrey Epstein files continue to shake up charges on the international scene, although not in the United States.

Borge Brende, who assumed the presidency of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2017, announced his resignation on February 26 in a statement, after the declassification of files by the US Department of Justice revealed that the Norwegian had had three business dinners with the sex offender and that he had also communicated with him by email and text messages.

"After careful reflection, I have decided to resign as president and CEO of the World Economic Forum. My time here, eight and a half years, has been deeply rewarding," Brende said in a statement in which he did not mention Epstein.

"I appreciate the incredible collaboration with my colleagues, partners and constituents, and believe that now is the right time for the Forum to continue its important work without distractions," added Brende, who previously served as Norway's foreign minister.

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Brende has stated that she was unaware of the past and criminal activities of Epstein, the billionaire American financier accused of running an underage sex trafficking ring, before meeting him in 2018, and said she regretted not investigating him further.

Brende's decision to resign comes after a series of revelations related to the convict, who in 2008 was convicted of soliciting prostitution services from a minor and was awaiting trial for sex trafficking when he died in prison in 2019, according to authorities by suicide.

The revelations from the case files have reached powerful men from the business, political and technological elites and even the monarchy, given the accusations against former Prince Andrew by Virginia Giuffre, one of the main whistleblowers in the case who committed suicide in 2025.

Read alsoDemocrats point to "larger cover-up" of documents in Epstein files related to Trump

Independent review

Separately, in a statement, Andre Hoffmann and Larry Fink, co-chairs of the Geneva-based forum that organizes the annual Davos summit, said the independent review, by an outside adviser, into Brende's ties to Epstein had concluded.

The findings indicated that there were no additional concerns to those already revealed, he added.

The co-chairs indicated that Alois Zwinggi of the World Economic Forum (WEF) will be interim president and CEO and that the forum's Board of Directors will oversee the leadership transition, including a plan to advance the process of identifying a permanent successor.

The US Department of Justice has released more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein.

Although the mention of names that were related to the disgraced financier does not necessarily mean that they participated in or knew about the crimes that Epstein was committing, his ties – which include a long list of business and political leaders, including the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, the former president, Bill Clinton, and the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk – are under scrutiny and generate suspicion.

But in the United States, the country of origin of the sex offender, of figures marred by scandal and where a large part of the crimes would have occurred, there are no criminal investigations underway nor has the career of any of the people mentioned been compromised. Abroad, the situation is a little different, with some resignations, although without specific findings about alleged sexual crimes.

In the case of the United Kingdom, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former Duke of York, the monarchy has withdrawn his noble titles and is under investigation for allegedly having given Epstein confidential information from the British Government when he served as trade envoy, a position he held between 2001 and 2011.

The investigations against the former British ambassador in Washington, Peter Mandelson, are focused on the same suspicions. Both were recently detained for a few hours by the authorities, as part of these investigations.

The Mandelson case has also shaken the foundations of the British Government. And although the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is not involved in the Epstein files, members of the opposition demand his resignation for having appointed Mandelson ambassador in December 2024, when his contacts with the American pedophile were already known.

Former Prince Andrew is one of the men whom Giufree directly accused of abusing her when she was a minor, although the monarch has always denied these allegations.

Read alsoBritish police search the former home of former Prince Andrew, investigated following the Epstein files

With Reuters

This article was adapted from its original English version

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