A powerful ‘mafia’-like syndicate operating within the trekking industry in the Himalayas is threatening to derail a government investigation into a lucrative scam involving the poisoning of tourists.
It was revealed last year that parts of the tourist industry have been conspiring to spike hikers in order to reap insurance payouts for costly and unnecessary airlifts from Everest and other high-altitude peaks.
An alliance of international insurers has threatened to pull cover for the country by Friday if the government of Nepal does not crack down on the elaborate scam.
Not in the sense of my approving of hikers being spiked but I am an aficionado of scams. Incredibly inventive, some of them.
Beats staging car crashes to claim on whiplash…..
Was under the impression you didn’t approve of the Euro. Or is it only successful scams receive the accolade?
@bis
Euro has been a very successful scam for Germany, as intended.
Pcar,
They didn’t want it, it was a price they had to pay for reunification.
Having had it forced on them they have played a blinder. Not least because they’ve dug their heels in, so far, against a fiscal union.
I’d assumed the climbers themselves initiated the scam. Going up is exhilarating, going down is a bore and plays hell with your knees.