KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Authorities in Nepal have arrested six mountain rescue and tour guides accused of staging fake rescues in the Himalayan country’s high mountains to defraud international insurance companies of millions of dollars, officials said Monday.
Nepal’s Central Bureau of Investigation last week arrested six people from three different mountain rescue and tour operators, accusing them of submitting false claims of nearly $20 million between 2022 and 2025 and receiving the money into their accounts. All six are Nepalese citizens.
Spokesman Shiva Kumar Shrestha said Monday that authorities were still investigating.
Fake documents, including passenger and waybills for helicopter rescue flights, medical bills and hospital reports, have been sent to insurance companies, the office said.
The agency noted that 171 of 1,248 ransom demands by a company turned out to be fake, leading to unwarranted payments of more than $10 million. Another is accused of fabricating 75 of the 471 ransom claims and fraudulently claiming $8 million, while the latter is accused of making 71 false claims with payments totaling more than $1 million.
Thousands of climbers travel to Nepal every year to scale the highest mountains of the Himalayas, while tens of thousands of others come to hike the mountain trails that lead to the base camps of these high peaks.
Every year, several climbers die and hundreds are rescued due to extreme exhaustion, altitude sickness or other medical problems.
There are few roads and limited medical facilities in the mountains, often forcing rescuers to charter expensive helicopter flights to transport patients to hospitals in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
High-altitude climbers must show proof of insurance covering helicopter rescue before being issued a climbing permit.
___
This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.
#Tourism #executives #arrested #Nepal #scamming #millions #dollars #fake #mountain #ransoms