Insane case of insurance fraud: student convinces his friend to amputate his legs

A Taiwanese student who had his legs amputated in the hope of getting a lot of insurance money has been exposed. He has to pay everything back. The fraud was uncovered through an investigation by the Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau.

Zhang, a 23-year-old university student from Taiwan, had planned to make a big splash by committing insurance fraud with a 23-year-old friend in early 2023. In the days before the two went riding around on a motorcycle in Taipei on the evening of January 26, 2023, the two took out several insurance policies in Zhang’s name. After the ride, he stuck his legs in a bucket full of dry ice for more than ten hours, so that they would be frozen to such an extent that the doctors had no choice but to amputate them.

The two told the doctors that the man’s legs had become frozen during the motorcycle ride. Zhang and his companion, who had already lost a lot of money by investing poorly in cryptocurrency, hoped to collect as much as $1.3 million in insurance money. The treating doctors sounded the alarm when they found no traces of socks or shoes and his injuries seemed very symmetrical. It was not cold enough to freeze that evening, they noticed.

The man’s legs were amputated, but the two were also investigated. Investigators found the bucket they had used, but also insurance documents and a computer containing their plans. They were arrested on January 17 on suspicion of fraud. The $7,200 he had received from an insurer was confiscated.