Media: guides poisoned mountaineers on Everest to cheat insurance companies

Following an investigation by the Nepalese police, a number of Mount Everest guides were accused of secretly administering drugs to foreign mountaineers, forcing them to resort to air-rescue operations that resulted in a EUR 20 million insurance fraud.

Several international media outlets report this, including the New York Post and The Independent.

The scam, which has already led to 11 arrests, is said to have involved 4,782 foreign mountaineers between 2022 and 2025, while the police claim to have uncovered more than 300 cases of alleged false rescues, with invoices totalling almost 20 million euro charged to the climbers themselves and to insurance companies.