GUY HAD FEET AMPUTATED FOR INSURANCE FRAUD

Prosecutors in Taiwan say a 23-year-old man had his legs amputated to receive a $1.3 million insurance payout. It didn’t work. The 23-year-old, identified only by his last name Zhang, conspired with a high school friend, identified only as Liao, who persuaded him to carry out the insurance scam. Mr. Liao had lost a large amount of money trading cryptocurrency. He tricked his friend Zhang into signing a legal note obligating him to pay about $800,000, and then told him that gangsters were pursuing him. The scam took place on January 26, 2023. They two men rode around Taipei on a motorbike at night, wanting to present the claim that Zhang was afflicted with frostbite. He then plunged his feet in a bucket of dry ice for over 10 hours to get them so badly frostbitten that he would need a double amputation. At the hospital, staff sensed something was amiss because his legs had no shoe or sock marks, and his injuries appeared symmetrical, which were inconsistent with a naturally occurring frostbite injury. The weather on the night of January 26 was also nowhere close to below freezing, at 42 degrees Fahrenheit. Zhang’s legs were amputated below the calf due to his frostbite injuries, but his case was reported to authorities. They learned that just days before, Zhang bought several expensive life insurance, travel insurance, and accident insurance policies. The two men are now both charged with fraud. And, as a capper, Zhang – the footless one – received $7,200 from one insurer, but he had to give it back.
* He could recoup some of that money by selling his sneaker collection.
* He wouldn’t back out of the scam even though he had literal cold feet.
* If this isn’t a good time to use the insanity defense, I don’t know what is.
* Those two must have hung around with a really tough crowd in high school.
* He “lost a large amount of money trading cryptocurrency.” Meanwhile, when he pulled the scam in January 2023, Bitcoin was at 23,000, now it’s 76,000. Dummy.