$20 million Everest rescue scam clouds Nepal’s climbing season

Nepal’s spring Everest climbing season opened this week amid a police probe into an alleged insurance fraud worthe nearly $20 million in which guides, helicopter operators, hospital staff and agents are accused of staging or inflating medical emergencies to trigger costly helicopter evacuations and bogus insurance claims.

Police said the methods included mixing baking soda into food to induce nausea and bloating, giving excessive Diamox — a medicine that helps with acclimatisation at high altitude — with forced over-hydration to mimic symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema, and in some cases using laxatives to weaken trekkers to the point where they could no longer continue on foot. Fake flight manifests, load sheets, invoices and hospital records were then allegedly used to support the claims.

Shiva Kumar Shrestha, spokesperson for Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau, said, “Hospitals, helicopter operators, and guides are also linked in this chain; we are investigating this.”

Operators said abuse of rescue flights had grown in recent years and had begun affecting the availability of helicopters for genuine emergencies. Mingma Sherpa, owner of the Kathmandu-based Seven Summit Treks, told TOI that the fallout could extend beyond the current case if international insurers lose confidence in Nepal’s rescue chain.

Lukas Furtenbach, the Austrian head of Furtenbach Adventures, said the allegations, especially those involving food tampering and hospital records, threatened confidence in Nepal’s rescue system. “The level of organised crime here is staggering. We are talking about millions of dollars being funneled through hospitals that provide fake discharge summaries for patients who were never even sick,” he said.

Investigators said the racket ran between 2022 and 2025, involved more than 300 fake rescues, and in some cases allegedly made trekkers ill intentionally before flying them to Kathmandu and billing foreign insurers through forged or manipulated records.

Police have charged 32 people with offences linked to organised crime and widened the investigation to include the owners of Mountain Rescue Service, Nepal Charter Service and Shreedhi Hospital. Among the accused, nine are in custody while 23 are absconding. “In our initial investigation, we found that these companies were involved in around 300 fake rescues,” Shrestha said.

Investigators said one of the main methods was to load several trekkers onto a single helicopter and bill multiple insurers as if each person had been flown on a separate private charter. They also alleged that exhausted trekkers were pressured to exaggerate symptoms and, in some cases, deliberately pushed into distress so that evacuation appeared to be the only option.

Central Investigation Bureau chief Manoj Kumar KC said, “We have hard evidence of the companies and individuals involved in the fake rescue scam. All of them will be prosecuted...”

Garrett Madison, an expedition leader with the US-based Madison Mountaineering who has summited Everest 10 times, added, “We see it every season: helicopters flying in circles for people who just have a headache or are a bit tired from the walk. It has turned a life-saving tool into a mountain taxi service. My concern is for the person who actually has HACE or a broken limb — will the helicopter be available for them...?”

The probe also examined how commissions allegedly moved through the system. In a recorded statement, Dr Girwan Raj Timilsina of Shreedhi Hospital said, “My hospital has also given commission from its earnings to trekking companies and rescue companies to promote business.”

Nepal Tourism Board chief executive Deepak Raj Joshi said corrective action could help restore confidence.