Rescue helicopter helps group of climbers in the Himalayas; view of Lingtren, Pumori and Khumbutse peaks, Nepal.
Six executives from travel agencies and mountain rescue services have been arrested and charged with carrying out fake mountain rescues in Nepal that defrauded insurance companies out of millions of dollars.
A large-scale fraud involving false rescues of mountaineers led to the arrest of six Nepalese citizens, at a time when Nepal seeks to strengthen its economy by increasing the number of tourists in its mountainous provinces.
Every year, thousands of climbers flock to the South Asian nation to “climb the highest mountains in the Himalayas“, and tens of thousands flock to the region to “walk the mountain trails” that lead to “the base camps of these high peaks”.
The terrain and weather conditions can be unforgiving, and every year, several climbers die and hundreds are rescuedwith symptoms of extreme exhaustion, altitude sickness or other medical problems, note a .
Com few roads and limited medical facilities” in the mountains, rescuers often have to “charter expensive helicopter flights” to transport patients to hospitals in Kathmandu.
This is where the problems begin, says .
In a series of insurance frauds worth 20 million dollars, tour operators and rescue services falsified documentswith which submitted fraudulent compensation claimsrelating to medical emergencies that would involve helicopter evacuations from remote hiking areas.
This large-scale insurance fraud, which will have occurred between 2022 and 2025, “seriously tarnished Nepal’s image as a tourist destination”, says the Nepali newspaper.
There had already been similar problems in 2018, but the Nepalese government stated at the time that it had combated the “false rescue scheme” eliminating all “middlemen” involved in organizing emergency evacuation services for hikers and climbers, and making tour operators legally responsible for their customers from the beginning to the end of a trip.
Apparently it didn’t work. Eight years later, the false rescue scams had not stopped; actually increasedaccording to the Nepal Police.
The fake documents included passenger and cargo manifests manipulated, relating to helicopter rescue flights, medical bills and fabricated or altered hospital reports.
And the numbers are high: 171 of 1248 rescues claimed by a company of the companies involved were false, leading to unjustified payments of more than 10 million dollars.
Another company is accused of having manufactured 75 of 471 claimed ransoms, and of having fraudulently demanded 8 million dollars, while a third is accused of having made 71 false requests with payments of more than 1 million dollars.
“We have concrete evidence of the involvement of companies and individuals in the fraudulent ransom scheme. Everyone will be charged, but this will take time,” he said Manoj Kumarhead of the Central Investigation Department, the police’s specialized unit for combating organized crime.
“We estimate that many companies identified by previous investigative committees and currently under investigation are still active,” added Kumar.
Apparently, climbers will continue to climb the mountain, have accidents, and need rescues. And opportunists will continue to take advantage of this…
