$10.31 Million Insurance Fraud Probe: Fraudulent Rescues and Charter Flights

The Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has uncovered a multi-million-dollar insurance fraud scheme in the Himalayas involving the alleged poisoning of climbers to trigger costly helicopter rescue claims. The investigation reveals a coordinated effort between mountain guides, helicopter operators and medical facilities to defraud international insurance companies through staged emergencies.

During the week of January 27, 2026, police arrested six top executives from trekking and helicopter rescue companies as part of a reopened investigation into the racket. The CIB, the specialized unit for organized crime, determined that the fraud had not only persisted since it was first identified years prior but had grown in scale.

Financial Scale of the Fraud

The investigation identified several companies that submitted fraudulent claims for rescues that were either unnecessary or entirely fabricated. The Mountain Rescue Service was found to have conducted 171 fraudulent rescues out of 1,248 total charter flights, claiming approximately $10.31 million from insurers.

Other companies implicated in the scheme include:

• Nepal Charter Service, which carried out 75 fake rescues out of 471 flights, claiming $8.2 million.
• Everest Experience and Assistance, which was linked to 71 suspicious rescues out of 601 flights, with insurance claims totaling $11.04 million.

The fraud extended into the healthcare sector, where hospitals received significant deposits linked to these activities. Between 2022 and 2025, investigators identified 4,782 foreign patients treated across implicated hospitals. During this period, Era International Hospital received deposits exceeding $15.87 million, while Shreedhi International Hospital received over $1.22 million.

Methods of Inducing Rescues

The CIB probe identified three primary scenarios used by guides and operators to trigger insurance payouts. In the most severe cases, guides allegedly laced the food of climbers with substances to induce medical emergencies, forcing an immediate evacuation.

A second method involved targeting exhausted trekkers. Guides would suggest to climbers who were too tired to walk back from destinations like Everest Base Camp that they could feign illness to secure a helicopter ride, with the guide handling the fraudulent insurance paperwork.

In a third scenario, guides and hotel staff were reportedly coached to frighten trekkers at high altitudes. They allegedly convinced climbers that they were in imminent danger of dying from altitude sickness and that only an immediate helicopter evacuation could save their lives.

Regulatory Failures and Police Action

The issue of fraudulent insurance claims in the region was first reported in 2018. At that time, the government established a fact-finding committee and issued a 700-page report. In 2018, officials claimed to have eliminated intermediaries and made tour operators legally responsible for their clients to prevent such scams.

Despite these reforms, the CIB found that the scam continued to flourish. Manoj Kumar KC, chief of the CIB and an additional inspector general, attributed the persistence of the crime to a lack of enforcement.

The scam continued due to lax punitive action. When there is no action against crime, it flourishes. The insurance scam too flourished as a result.

Manoj Kumar KC

Under the regulations established after 2018, helicopter companies, tour operators, hospitals, and insurance firms were required to submit all details regarding rescue flights and medical bills to the Department of Tourism, the Tourist Police, and the Tourist Search and Rescue Committee. The current police action indicates these reporting requirements failed to stop the coordinated fraud.