No, this photo doesn’t show Klaus Schwab nude at the beach

A photograph that claims to show World Economic Forum leader Klaus Schwab in a garter, fedora hat and white gloves at a nude beach has resurfaced on Instagram. But that person is a Florida resident, not Schwab. 

An Instagram post shared the photograph with text that said, "Klaus Schwab. Founder of the World Economic Forum. Just so we know who we’re dealing with…"

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

A Google reverse-image search showed us that the picture has been shared across Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and blog posts for years. The earliest version of the photograph we could find was from a Free Earth Memes page in October 2018. 

An article by a Greek fact-checker identified the person in the photograph as Max Schwab, not Klaus Schwab. 

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stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

We found images of what appeared to be the same person wearing a blue fedora hat and blue gloves on a Facebook page called "Only in Key West!" from 2019. 

Many of the comments on the post identified the individual as a local who frequents Key West, Florida, in eccentric clothing. "It’s good to see Max is still in Key West haven’t seen them for a while," one comment said.  Another said, "This guy is legit …you see him everyday in a different color outfit (if you wanna call it that) & often riding a bicycle … only in Key West!!!" 

Klaus Schwab lives in Cologny, Switzerland, according to his bio on a Davos Klosters tourism page. 

A 2010 Facebook image posted by a user named Max Schwab shows a person photographed next to Key West’s famous Southernmost Point marker wearing only angel wings and crocs. 

We rate the claim that this photo shows Klaus Schwab at a nude beach False.