(TibetanReview.net, Apr06’26) – While 32 people face charges for a $20 million fraud in the widely reported multi-year fake Mt Everest rescue scandal, authorities have clarified that there is “no evidence” that guides intentionally poisoned clients to engineer altitude sickness symptoms, reported news18.com Apr 5, citing Climbing.com Apr 3.
While Mt Everest has always been a high-stakes arena of physical endurance and commercial ambition, a chilling new investigation by the Nepal Police Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has revealed that the greatest danger on the slopes might not be the thin air or the Khumbu Icefall—it might be the very people hired to keep climbers safe, said the news18.com report.
The allegation, based on the CIB investigation, is that rogue trekking guides were secretly feeding baking soda to foreign climbers to induce symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). The purpose was stated to be to force unnecessary, high-cost helicopter evacuations, which is at the heart of the scandal. In a Mar 29 report on the scandal, the widely cited kathmandupost.com only said that in at least one case cited in the CIB investigation, baking powder was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell.
But according to an investigation by the Climbing website (www.climbing.com) – which said Apr 3 that it had obtained the full chargesheet – there is zero forensic or legal evidence to support these poisoning claims. While the term “baking soda” appears in the indictment overview as a rumour encountered by several guides, none of the 32 defendants have actually been charged with tampering with food or medicine.
“To date, the official investigation has not found any evidence of ‘poisoning,’” the CIB has stated in an email to Climbing.
On April 3, the CIB released an official statement to curb international misinformation, clarifying that while the fraud is real, the “poisoning” narrative is not supported by facts, the climbling.com report said.
The real “rescue racket” is a sophisticated web of financial forgery. The CIB has identified nearly 4,800 foreign patients treated across implicated hospitals between 2022 and 2025; at least 171 of these cases were confirmed as total fabrications.
Hospitals reportedly pay 20% to 25% of insurance payouts back to trekking businesses and another 25% to helicopter operators in exchange for “patient referrals.” Investigators found thousands of pages of faked hospital discharge summaries, altered flight logs, and forged doctor signatures used to bilk international insurers. In one documented case, four tourists were rescued on a single helicopter flight. However, agencies submitted separate claims for each, ballooning the bill to $31,100—plus separate hospital fees of $11,890, the report noted.
The crackdown, which saw 11 arrests in March 2026, has triggered a wave of cancellations. For the Sherpa community, who have spent decades building a legacy of trust, the betrayal is personal, the report noted.