Overview
- Police say a multi-year scheme on Everest and nearby trails staged or exaggerated medical emergencies, with more than 300 fake helicopter rescues from 2022 to 2025 leading to nearly $20 million in bogus claims.
- Investigators describe guides scaring trekkers or inducing symptoms by giving Diamox with too much water or lacing food with baking soda so evac choppers could be called for supposed altitude sickness.
- Operators allegedly forged flight manifests and hospital records, including digital signatures of uninvolved doctors, then billed each passenger as if they had chartered a separate aircraft.
- Hospitals and companies allegedly shared payouts through commissions of about 20% to 25%, with probe data tying 4,782 foreign patients to implicated facilities and identifying 171 confirmed fake rescues.
- Authorities have filed 33 cases and introduced new rules that require every rescue to be reported to the tourism department and tourist police, a step meant to stem fraud as insurers reassess coverage for Nepal trips.