Everest guides mixed baking powder, uncooked chicken, and rat droppings into climbers' food to deliberately make them sick.
The poisoning triggered fake helicopter rescues that netted hospitals and aviation companies more than £15 million.
32 guides were charged on March 12, 2026 in connection with a scheme that impacted 4,782 international climbers between 2022 and 2025.
The guides gave climbers acetazolamide tablets with excessive amounts of water and spiked their meals with substances that closely mimicked altitude sickness and food poisoning.
The Scale of the Operation
Era International Hospital took in more than $15.87 million while Shreedhi International Hospital received more than $1.22 million from the falsified rescue operations.
The charged helicopter operators include Mountain Helicopters, Manang Air, and Altitude Air.
How Victims Were Targeted
Two Canadian trekkers filed a complaint in late 2025 after describing oxygen readings reported as dangerously low and unnecessary CT scans.
Climbers had no clear reason to suspect deliberate interference because the symptoms matched exactly what they expected from high-altitude exposure.
The scam was first exposed by The Kathmandu Post in 2018, but continued operating for years despite government reforms.
Legal Aftermath
Nine suspects are in custody while the remaining 23 are believed to be at large.
Several international insurers have withdrawn coverage for trekking expeditions in Nepal citing repeated instances of fraud.
Manoj Kumar KC, chief of Nepal's organized crime unit, attributed the crisis to lack of enforcement and stated the scam continued due to lax punitive action.
Nearly 5,000 climbers trusted their guides with their lives and were deliberately poisoned for money instead.