IMF Board Meets To Discuss Georgieva's Future

The International Monetary Fund's executive board will meet again on Sunday with Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and the law firm that says she pressured World Bank staff to change data to benefit China while serving as the bank's CEO, according to sources familiar with the plan.

Photo Insert: The embattled IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva facilitating the organization's 2021 Annual Meeting

A decision on Georgieva's future at the global lender is not expected until Monday, at the earliest, as finance ministers and other senior officials from many of the IMF's 190 member-countries gather in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank fall meetings, one of the sources told Andrea Shalal and David Lawder of Reuters.

The IMF's executive board debated the matter for five hours on Friday before adjourning and asking for more "clarifying details."

The scandal threatens to overshadow the high-profile meetings, where officials plan to discuss the global economy, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and global taxation issues in discussions that will be held partly in-person and online. In normal years, the event draws some 10,000 people to Washington.

Georgieva has strongly denied the allegations, which date back to 2017, when she was the chief executive of the World Bank. Her lawyer claims that the investigation conducted by law firm WilmerHale violated World Bank staff rules in part by denying her an opportunity to respond to the accusations, an assertion WilmerHale disputes.

Georgieva and the WilmerHale attorneys will appear separately at Sunday's board meeting, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. No comment was immediately available from Georgieva or the firm.

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