Zhang was 23 years old, studying at university and, according to Taiwanese prosecutors, accepted a plan that seemed impossible. He put his feet in a bucket of dry ice for more than 10 hours until he caused such severe frostbite that both legs had to be amputated.
The goal was to collect about 1,3 million dollars in insurance. A few days earlier, he had taken out several expensive life, travel and accident insurance policies. According to the investigation, his high school friend, Liao, also 23 and facing losses from cryptocurrency trading, persuaded and deceived him into signing a promissory note for about 800.000 dollars.
Investigators say the two rode a motorcycle around Taipei at night to support the claim that the frostbite had happened during that ride. Then came the dry ice and the hospital admission. But medical staff grew suspicious. There were no marks from socks or shoes, and the injuries were clean and symmetrical. In a subtropical region like Taiwan, moreover, there are no recorded cases of severe frostbite requiring amputation caused by natural weather.
His legs were amputated below the knees, and the fraud almost completely fell apart. Zhang received a single payment of 7.200 dollars, which will be seized, and the insurance companies canceled the rest because so little time had passed between taking out the policies and filing the claim. Both were arrested on January 17 and charged with fraud. All of the above is what the authorities allege: there has not yet been a verdict.
