A story that’s made international headlines in recent days involved the accusation that dozens of guides on Mount Everest have been ‘poisoning’ foreign climbers as part of an insurance scam.

Per reporting from The Hill, Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau reportedly uncovered $20 million involved in the insurance fraud scheme in 2018 and has recently reopened their investigation.

One claim that’s involved is that guides would wait for climbers to show symptoms of altitude sickness and then give them legitimate medicine, but also accompany that medicine with “excessive” amounts of water, which would worsen symptoms. In another scenario, a guide allegedly mixed baking powder into someone’s food, causing sickness. In scenarios of this nature, a helicopter is sometimes called to rescue the sick climber. Those with insurance from faraway lands where verification would be difficult were allegedly targeted.

Other scenarios are alleged to have involved fabricated requests for emergency evacuations.

The Independent reports that 4,782 international climbers may have been impacted by the scam between 2022 and 2025, with over 300 cases of allegedly fake rescues being uncovered, as well. Per the Independent, 11 arrests have been made related to the scam and 32 people have been charged with a crime.

In-depth reporting related to the situation and the alleged scam from The Independent can be found here.

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