Multiple Mount Everest guides have been implicated in a $20 million insurance fraud scheme that was recently uncovered by authorities in Nepal.
A Nepali police spokesperson told The Independent that as many as 32 people have been charged and 11 arrests have been made as part of a vast fake rescue scam in which guides even poisoned some climbers to trigger payouts.
The scam is believed to have affected approximately 4,782 international climbers between 2022 and 2025, with police discovering more than 300 cases of alleged fake rescues.
Involving sherpas, trekking company owners, helicopter operators and even hospital executives, the scandal comes at the start of the spring climbing season and has damaged "Nepal’s national pride, prestige and dignity internationally," according to the Nepal Police's Central Investigation Bureau (CIB).
Guides are alleged to have forced helicopter evacuations by faking medical emergencies. In some instances, food items were laced with large amounts of baking powder to stimulate gastric distress, a symptom commonly associated with altitude sickness, according to The Independent.
From there, scammers would set up costly emergency helicopter evacuations, operators of which would forge medical and flight documents to claim costs from international travel insurers.
Hospitals are even alleged to have participated, with some creating false admission and treatment reports.
The latest scandal comes less than a decade after a Kathmandu Post investigation uncovered a fake rescue network.
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