What was claimed
Klaus Schwab has been arrested in Switzerland for crimes related to the pandemic.
Our verdict
This is not true, and has been denied as “fake news” by spokespeople for the police.
WEF founder Klaus Schwab has not been arrested
Articles circulating on Facebook claim that Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), has been arrested by police in Switzerland.
The articles make vague allegations surrounding the supposed arrest, with one suggesting that it is in connection with Covid-related fraud and another alluding to a “crime that he committed during the phase of Covid-19 outbreak”.
Several other fact checking services have investigated these claims and found them to be false.
Melanie Lourenco, a spokesperson for the Swiss federal police, told AFP: “We confirm that Klaus Schwab was not arrested by the Swiss police.”
Jean-Philippe Brandt, spokesperson for police in Geneva, also told AFP: "This is fake news."
Besides this, Full Fact could find no evidence that Mr Schwab’s supposed arrest had been reported by any mainstream media outlet. The Swiss police has not released any press releases regarding Mr Schwab, nor has the WEF.
As the chief executive of the WEF, which is known for holding an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Schwab has written about the need for a ‘Great Reset’ following the pandemic, which involves calling for a major overhaul to the world economy.
The ‘Great Reset’ has become a feature of a number of conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic, which we have written about before.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because it is not true that Klaus Schwab has been arrested, as confirmed by several police spokespeople.