Nepal police have arrested ten people and served suspicion notices to 32 others in connection with a major insurance fraud scheme involving fake helicopter rescue operations in the Himalayas. According to reports from Swedish media outlets Aftonbladet and Helsingborgs Dagblad, the fraud network allegedly defrauded insurance companies of at least 190 million Swedish kronor over several years.
The scheme reportedly involved tourist guides poisoning tourists with baking powder to create fake emergency situations requiring helicopter evacuations. The same rescue operations were allegedly used for multiple insurance claims. Authorities also suspect that regular tourist flights were reported as medical transports, while several hospitals in the network inflated bills and forged medication prescriptions to obtain insurance payouts.
This case bears similarities to a 2018 investigation in Nepal that involved 15 companies but never resulted in formal charges. The current investigation represents one of the largest insurance fraud cases uncovered in Nepal's tourism sector, which relies heavily on emergency rescue services for trekkers and climbers in the Himalayan region.