A Taiwan university student who had his legs amputated in the hopes of winning a $1.3 million insurance claim has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, as per a report in Business Insider. The Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau said that the 23-year-old, who goes only by his last name Zhang, forced himself to have a double amputation after he put his feet in a bucket of dry ice for more than 10 hours, which caused frostbite.
They added that Liao, a friend of Zhang from high school, influenced him to carry out the scam. Investigators said that Liao lost money on cryptocurrency and misled Zhang into signing a legal document obligating Zhang to pay almost $800,000. He also told Zhang that some gangsters were after him.
The statement, which is translated from Mandarin, claims that on January 26, 2023, Zhang got frostbite while riding a motorbike with his friend Liao in Taipei. The prosecution said that a few days before the incident, he filed for life, health, and accident insurance. The sum of the insurance policies was $1.3 million.
After that, the two returned to Liao's house, Zhang soaked his feet in dry ice. He was taken to a nearby hospital after the foot soaking, where medical personnel thought his wounds were fake, according to the prosecution. According to the release, the medical staff reported that although the patient's feet were frostbitten, there were "neat and symmetrical" injuries and "no socks or shoe marks."
It was also reported that the weather on the night of January 26 was "nowhere close to below freezing." "As Taiwan is a subtropical region, cases of severe frostbite requiring amputation are unheard of due to natural climatic conditions," the bureau said.
Zhang suffered frostbite injuries which necessitated the amputation of both legs below the calf. Nonetheless, the prosecutors said that Zhang's case was reported to the authorities. Further, the plastic bucket that was used to freeze Zhang's feet, insurance papers, a white polystyrene box containing dry ice, eight cell phones, and electronic devices were discovered by police during their investigation of Zhang and Liao in November.
According to the bureau, Liao and Zhang were both charged with fraud and aiding and abetting serious injury after their detention on January 17.
The authorities said that Zhang received one insurance payout of $7,200, however, it will be seized. The insurance providers cancelled the other claims filed following the incident due to the short period between receiving the policies and filing them, according to the outlet.
