An alleged $20 million insurance scam on Mount Everest saw climbers subjected to staged rescues and admitted to hospitals across Kathmandu in a scheme to fraudulently claim insurance money, Nepali authorities say.

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

Nepal’s Central Investigation Bureau said that the 10 people arrested in connection with the alleged scheme included individuals from a trekking company, a rescue company and hospitals in the capital.

The companies involved were accused of faking documents presented to Nepali authorities and insurance companies, as well as forging passenger and cargo manifests, Nepali police said in a press release last month. The scheme has “gravely damaged and degraded” Nepal’s international reputation, it added.

Local media reported that a total of 32 guides have been charged, and investigators identified nearly 4,800 international climbers treated at implicated hospitals between 2022 and 2025.

“Foreign tourists were systematically defrauded,” the bureau said.

Bureau spokesperson Shiva Kumar Shrestha said that foreign tourists who “endured health problems” while trekking in Nepal’s Himalayan region were specifically targeted.

The Kathmandu Post, which investigated alleged wrongdoing, reported that in one case an assistant at a hospital in Nepal’s capital allegedly submitted his own year-old X-ray report to support a treatment claim for foreign trekkers, in an effort to obtain insurance payouts. NBC News has not verified those claims.

The Associated Press reported in February that travel and mountain executives were accused of staging fake rescues on the country’s mountain peaks to defraud international insurance companies of millions of dollars.

At 29,029 feet above sea level, reaching the summit of Mount Everest remains one of the world’s most challenging feats. While around 1,000 people attempt the climb each year, only 7,583 have ever successfully reached the peak, according to High Adventure Expeditions, a Minnesota-based group that has previously organized Everest climbs.

Rescues and medical incidents are frequent occurrences due to the extreme conditions on Everest and its high altitude, with a handful of deaths reported every year.