Man Allegedly Convinced Friend to Amputate His Own Legs as Part of $1.3M Insurance Scam: Authorities

Mar. 15, 2025

Dry ice.Photo:Getty

Getty

Two Taiwanese men are facing criminal charges after one allegedly urged the other to purposefully freeze his legs to the point of requiring amputations in what authorities characterized as a botched attempt to collect a $1.3 million insurance payout.

Prosecutors said Zhang immersed his feet in a bucket of dry ice for around 10 hours, which resulted in frostbite and required both legs to be amputated,Business InsiderandTaiwan Newsreports.

Liao allegedly told Zhang that gang members were after him, persuading him to file a false insurance claim, Taiwan News reports, citing authorities.

According to the release, which is translated from Mandarin, Zhang said he suffered frostbite while riding a motorcycle with his friend Liao around Taipei on Jan. 26, 2023. Prosecutors alleged that he applied for life insurance, travel insurance and accident insurance in the days before the incident. The insurance policies totaled $1.3 million.

The pair then went back to Liao’s home where the foot soaking took place, Taiwan News reports. After the foot soaking, Zhang was taken to a local hospital, where medical staff believed that his injuries were manufactured, prosecutors said. The medical staff said that while his feet had frostbite, there were “no socks or shoe marks'' and that the injuries were “neat and symmetrical,” the release states.

Prosecutors added in the release that the temperature that day was between 42 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which is nowhere near the temperature (32 degrees Fahrenheit) that would cause frostbite.

“Taiwan is a subtropical region, and cases of severe frostbite requiring amputation due to natural climate factors in the flatlands are unheard of,” the release states.

Prosecutors said in the release that Liao suffered losses from trading cryptocurrency and tricked Zhang into signing a promissory note ordering him to pay nearly $800,000.

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It’s unclear if the suspects have entered pleas or retained attorneys to speak on their behalf.

source: people.com