Several guides and rescue operators on Mount Everest have been arrested and accused of drugging foreign climbers to force expensive aerial evacuations, part of a $20 million insurance fraud scheme surrounding the mountain.
According to the Independent, 32 people have been charged and 11 arrests have been made so far. Around 4,782 international climbers were reportedly affected between 2022 and 2025, with more than 300 cases of alleged fake rescues being uncovered. The scam apparently included multiple actors throughout the trekking ecosystems, including the sherpas, trekking company owners, helicopter operators, and hospital executives.
A range of methods were used to force the helicopter evacuations, based on reports from investigators. These included fake medical emergencies and lacing food with large amounts of baking powder to cause gastric distress, a symptom commonly associated with altitude sickness. Other cases involved climbers being given medications with excess amounts of water, triggering symptoms.
Climbers reported nausea, dizziness, or body aches, and were advised to leave the mountain and agree to expensive emergency helicopter evacuations. Operators then allegedly forged medical and flight documents to claim funds from international travel insurance companies. Operators billed each passenger as if they had taken a separate helicopter flight, even when several people were flown in one helicopter, and hospitals allegedly created fake medical documents to support the claims.
This is not the first fake rescue network to be exposed surrounding the world’s tallest mountain. In 2018, a Kathmandu Post investigation prompted a 700-page report from the government, and in 2019 additional reports claimed that some foreign visitors work work with trekking firms to fake the need for a helicopter rescue in return for cheaper expeditions.
