Revealed: How Fujitsu is pouring money into mindfulness and calligraphy workshops at the Davos love-in for the super-rich while victims of the Post Office scandal are still waiting for compensation

This is a tale of two houses. The first occupies the site of a luxury chocolate and truffle store on the main promenade through central Davos in Switzerland; the second can be found in a pebble-dashed apartment building on the outskirts of town.

Both venues were transformed this week by the 54th World Economic Forum, which saw 3,000 of Planet Earth’s biggest egos — world leaders, business chiefs, billionaires, politicians and attention-seeking celebrities — descend on the historic ski resort.

The nature of that transformation will give you a pretty good idea of what really makes this fondue-fuelled global networking event tick.

Let’s start with the chocolate store. For the duration of ‘WEF’, as it’s universally known, the good citizens of Davos cash in by allowing fashion boutiques, offices and even churches to be re-purposed as swanky HQs by Accenture, J.P. Morgan and other mega-corporations.

At 2024’s event, this particular building therefore got a rebrand. It became: ‘Fujitsu House.’

Scenery of winter resort Davos, Switzerland. The World Economic Forum is best known for its annual meeting at the end of January

Scenery of winter resort Davos, Switzerland. The World Economic Forum is best known for its annual meeting at the end of January

The 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, and corporate and political leaders in Davos

The 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, and corporate and political leaders in Davos

The premises were duly fitted out, at astronomical expense, so the Japanese tech firm’s top executives could entertain chums and clients.

Inside, the refrigerators and tills were replaced by designer sofas, plus a well-manned cocktail bar, orchids, bonsai trees and several elaborate origami sculptures.

Fujitsu is, of course, facing mounting public anger over its disgraceful role in the Horizon scandal.

Against that backdrop, was the existence of this ostentatious ‘House’ at the world’s most elitist event, entirely sensible? Out here in Smugville, no one seemed to care.

For while the shamed company’s European boss was grovelling before MPs in London, his corporate superiors were throwing themselves headlong into the Davos spirit, hosting a string of ‘mindfulness’ events, where wealthy guests could ‘learn more about Japanese culture’ by trying calligraphy or enjoying a traditional tea ceremony.

A stone’s throw away in the official conference centre, protected by roadblocks and rooftop snipers, more than 60 world leaders, including Emmanuel Macron of France and Chinese premier Li Qiang, were exchanging pleasantries with bloviating EU grandees and self-important UN and IMF officials.

Fujitsu’s top brass could also rub shoulders with business tycoons, including Microsoft gazillionaire Bill Gates, musician Nile Rodgers, and rapper Will.i.am, who were there with an army of professional schmoozers including, perhaps inevitably, Tony Blair and George Osborne.

On the royal front, we had kings and queens of Belgium and Holland, assorted sheikhs and the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie in attendance.

Fujitsu's top brass could also rub shoulders with business tycoons, including Microsoft gazillionaire Bill Gates

Fujitsu’s top brass could also rub shoulders with business tycoons, including Microsoft gazillionaire Bill Gates

At the Saudi pavilion, they were handing out free lunches. There were many takers. Pictured, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia

At the Saudi pavilion, they were handing out free lunches. There were many takers. Pictured, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia

They have for some reason decided it would be a good idea to replace their father, Prince Andrew, as the House of Windsor’s resident Davos regulars. On Tuesday, the duo attended a panel discussion on modern slavery hosted by Theresa May. I am told it was sparsely attended.

We digress. The key ‘theme’ these lofty personages were gathering to discuss, according to the World Economic Forum’s official programme, was ‘rebuilding trust’. Fujitsu claimed on its official WEF website to be ‘deeply invested in this idea’.

So when its ‘House’ wasn’t being used to entertain clients, it was hosting lectures about how ‘happier employees can have a positive impact on your value chain’.

‘Happy’ is not the word you would use to describe the hundreds of blameless Post Office sub-postmasters who, thanks to Fujitsu’s dodgy computer system, have been thrown into prison or financially ruined.

Or the British taxpayers now counting the cost, to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds.

But, as ever in this corner of the Swiss Alps, the concerns of the little people are easily forgotten.

How else, one might ask, do the Davos elite manage, year after year, to get away with using this gargantuan talking-shop, which has a carbon footprint the size of Al Gore’s ego, to lecture us about the perils of climate change?

Fujitsu is, of course, facing mounting public anger over its disgraceful role in the Horizon scandal. Members of the public walk past the Fujitsu stall during the WEF

Fujitsu is, of course, facing mounting public anger over its disgraceful role in the Horizon scandal. Members of the public walk past the Fujitsu stall during the WEF

Despite Switzerland's famously efficient train network, the global elite still don't 'do' eco-friendly public transport.. Pictured, snow-covered Davos in Switzerland

Despite Switzerland’s famously efficient train network, the global elite still don’t ‘do’ eco-friendly public transport.. Pictured, snow-covered Davos in Switzerland

Or to preach about the sacrifices ordinary folk must apparently now make to achieve net zero?

So gridlocked are the town’s roads, thanks to shiny black SUVs ferrying plutocrats too lazy to walk, that on one night this week, the navigation tool in Google Maps told me it was taking 35 minutes for gas-belching vehicles to drive a mere 800 yards.

Up in the sky, a never-ending succession of ‘helicopter taxis’ have meanwhile been ferrying delegates on £4,000 shuttles to and from the airports of St Moritz and St Gallen-Altenrhein, near the Liechtenstein border, where 150 fuel-guzzling private jets landed on Monday alone.

Despite Switzerland’s famously efficient train network, the global elite still don’t ‘do’ eco-friendly public transport.

Instead, Davos Man (and it is, still, largely men) is big on two things: hypocrisy and preposterous self-importance.

So it goes that an event financed by tax-dodging corporations, where the average net worth of the 500-odd speakers was once estimated at nearly £300 million a head, hosts discussions about fairness, equality and social justice.

Of the many frankly ludicrous spectacles to jollify my trip to Davos this year, two stick in the mind.

One was the appearance on stage of an Amazonian tribal chief, in full jungle garb, who performed a quasi-religious chant before blowing in the face of a collection of besuited grandees. This ritual, we were gravely assured, would somehow help ‘protect and heal the planet’.

The other was the sight of the world’s most ruthless capitalists rushing to parade their woke credentials at a brand new Davos venue called the ‘Equality Lounge’.

It was situated, a touch unfortunately, adjacent to the headquarters of several oil-rich Gulf states whose idea of equality includes criminalising homosexuality and oppressing women.

At the Saudi pavilion, they were handing out free lunches. There were many takers.

To understand Davos properly, you must realise that it’s actually two separate events, which run in uneasy parallel.

By day, everything revolves around the conference centre, where delegates sit through dreary seminars with titles such as ‘A new dawn for Eurasia?’ or ‘Where are we with Autonomous mobility?’.

Big events, on supposedly hot topics such as AI, are compered by WEF’s founder Klaus Schwab, an 85-year-old German economist who boasts a comedy accent straight out of ‘Allo ‘Allo! and, in the words of biographer Peter Goodman, is in the a habit of addressing his audience ‘as if every word is among the most meaningful uttered in history’.

Schwab founded WEF in 1971 with the modest intention of ‘improving the state of the world’. According to Goodman, he’s lately ‘been known to tell underlings that he anticipates one day receiving a Nobel Peace Prize’ in return.

For all the guff, this is a shamelessly elitist gathering where you must pay to play.

The true cost of access to the whole thing is a closely guarded secret. But back in 2014, CNN claimed the ‘delegate fee’ was around £20,000. That number has since increased considerably.

Bill Browder, a former hedge-fund manager turned full-time activist against Vladimir Putin, tells me he stopped going after the asking price for a ticket was almost quadrupled, from £50,000 to an astonishing £197,000 in 2022.

‘I started coming when I was in business, because then you feel you can justify the price,’ he says.

‘I then started being a full-time campaigner. Initially, I carried on paying the fee, but then they wrote to say they were ending the old programme and I’d now have to pay $250,000 [£197,000] if I wanted to still come.

I asked them if I could have an activist badge, which is free, and they said no.’

He can only now appear at fringe events outside the venue.

At least part of the loot raised by organisers, who enjoy £370 million in annual revenues, has been spent on WEF’s landmark headquarters where 600 staff admire Lake Geneva from a building ‘designed with space and light in mind, blending seamlessly into the surrounding countryside thanks to olive-green granite walls, grass-planted roofs, and vast glass-covered areas’.

A hallway connecting two wings is apparently lined with photos of Schwab glad-handing world leaders.

Inside the official conference venue, a strict apartheid system operates, based on the colour of your plastic lanyard.

For normal delegates, it’s white, but their bag-carriers have green ones. Others of moderate importance are branded with orange and turquoise.

The really big fromages are given a special credential with a hologram, which permits entry into a sort of holy of holies called the IGWEL lounge.

This stands for ‘informal gathering of world economic leaders’. It’s the bit in which visiting politicians, such as Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who was in town this week, yearn to be seen.

So much for the official event. The really colourful part of WEF occurs on the Davos party circuit.

Here, away from the bright lights, deals are cut, palms greased and connections made.

‘Coming here pays for itself,’ was how one New York hedge-funder explained things, when we chatted on a chairlift.

‘It costs a fortune, but you only have to cut one deal, or meet someone who will help you cut a future deal, to be in profit. Do I bother going to official events? Not really. Why do you think I’m skiing?’

Adding to the sense of glamour, for workaholic businessmen who spend most of life gazing at a screen, are the blue-chip celebrities.

During the World Economic Forum, or 'WEF week', as Beatrix calls it, everything changes

During the World Economic Forum, or ‘WEF week’, as Beatrix calls it, everything changes

People walk on the day of the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos

People walk on the day of the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos

One starstruck boss of a ‘big four’ consulting firm regaled me with tales of a glitzy party where he had witnessed the magician David Blaine perform a card trick to a table of enthralled guests.

They included Sting, his wife Trudie Styler and, incongruously, the U.S. politician and ‘climate change envoy’ John Kerry.

There is a dark side to the late-night antics, however. And that, in turn, takes us to the second ‘house’ at the centre of this tale of turbo-charged modern capitalism: the aforementioned apartment on the outskirts of town.

Its keys are held by a woman named Beatrix (some of the names have been changed by request), who has been the tenant since the autumn of 2022.

She uses it as a local headquarters of her business. And that business just happens to be one of the biggest escort agencies operating in the Swiss capital of Bern.

For 51 weeks of the year, Beatrix allows her girls to sub-let the apartment on an exclusive basis.

They typically take the three-hour trip there by train, and stay for up to a fortnight, sleeping in one room and entertaining pre-booked clients, who tend to be local residents, in another.

A percentage of takings is then paid back to the agency, a relatively standard arrangement in a country where prostitution has been legal since the 1940s, and is these days highly regulated.

During the World Economic Forum, or ‘WEF week’, as Beatrix calls it, everything changes. After all, with 3,000 rich people, of whom roughly 70 per cent are men, descending on the Alpine town, demand for sex workers goes through the roof.

So it goes that, for these few days in early January, the apartment stops being a knocking shop, and instead becomes a home from home to six of her top escorts, who occupy inflatable camp beds installed in the bedrooms.

‘The Swiss escort market is largely what we term an ‘in call’ market,’ says Beatrix.

All local service providers are fully booked during the WEF week

All local service providers are fully booked during the WEF week

Despite Switzerland's famously efficient train network, the global elite still don't 'do' eco-friendly public transport

Despite Switzerland’s famously efficient train network, the global elite still don’t ‘do’ eco-friendly public transport

‘It means that clients will generally come to visit the girls in their workplace. In a few big cities, where there are more international customers, there tends to be a little more ‘out call’ work, where girls instead go to wherever the client is staying. And for this one period every year, that also ends up happening in Davos.’

As ever, in a capitalist system, prices rise with demand.

Typical rates for Beatrix’s girls, who in normal times charge roughly £300 per hour, double. Overnight stays in a client’s hotel room start at £3,000. Tips are generous.

The bedroom preferences of the global elite vary by nationality, Beatrix adds.

British delegates ‘need to be able to communicate, and like to talk’, she says. ‘They want a girl who speaks good English and will read their web profile in detail to feel like they know them a bit.’

American clients are more transactional, but ‘tip very well’. The biggest spenders are Asian, she adds, though they often make ‘unusual demands’.

This week, Beatrix expects the six girls each to complete roughly a dozen daytime and early evening call-outs, plus a few overnight stays.

In all, her Davos residence will in a few short days generate more than £100,000. ‘It’s a glamorous place, so they will have fun at the same time,’ she adds.

Several other agencies have similar properties in Davos, while escorts based in Zurich, a two-hour train ride away, frequently head up for assignations.

They are met at a station by the client’s driver and smuggled past hotel receptionists in exchange for a healthy tip.

In 2020, police sources told The Times that more than 100 prostitutes — one for every 30 delegates — head to Davos during the event, while the French newspaper 20 Minutes this week interviewed the owner of Tit4Tat, a booking app for sex workers. ‘

All local service providers are fully booked during the WEF week,’ he said. ‘There are many customers in Davos who are not price-sensitive and who appreciate the privacy of our app.’

Not every encounter is entirely consensual, though. In 2020, the underbelly of Davos was exposed by Channel 4’s Dispatches, which showed undercover footage of lecherous businessmen making unwanted advances on female attendees. ‘Men talk down to you, often.

Or they look over you until they’re horny and they want to talk to you,’ was how one victim reflected on her experience. ‘If you want to talk business then they’re just not interested.’

The documentary claimed that a WEF official warned several first-time delegates in 2019 that they shouldn’t even go out at night because of the potential risk of sexual harassment.

‘If something happens with some big CEO, who is going to be believed? You or them?’ they were allegedly told.

One expert on corporate ethics, attending Davos for the first time this week, told me: ‘The gender balance here is ridiculous. Go to any event and it will be 70 or 80 per cent men.

‘Except when you go to an event where they discuss equality. Then you look around the audience and only five per cent of men bother to go.’

Figures tend to bear him out. There are 36 people on WEF’s executive committee. Just nine are women.

The lofty organisation has 29 trustees, yet just a third are female. After a week in which Davos gave us the ‘equality lounge’ and ‘Fujitsu House’, the easiest way for its virtue-signalling elite to ‘rebuild trust’ would surely be to can the hypocrisy.

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