Anchorage doctor sentenced to prison in multi-million-dollar health care, tax fraud schemes

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An Anchorage doctor was sentenced today to six and a half years in prison for executing a $12.5 million health care fraud scheme and evading over $4 million in taxes on the profits of their 15-year scheme. Her husband and co-defendant was sentenced to three years' probation, with two years to be served in home confinement for his role in the fraudulent scheme.

According to court documents, since 2005, Dr. Claribel Tan, 61, and her husband, Daniel Tan, 70, operated a rheumatology medical clinic in Anchorage. Dr. Tan specialized in the treatment of autoimmune and musculoskeletal diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and psoriatic arthritis, and prescribed injectable medications to treat those conditions. These conditions are often chronic, degenerative and irreversible, but certain medicines can slow or arrest the progression of such diseases. Mr. Tan performed office and management work for the clinic. As part of their scheme, the Tans deceived their patients about the kinds and doses of medications Dr. Tan administered through injections in the office, and fraudulently billed health insurance plans for reimbursement of medications that the Tans did not purchase or administer to patients.

Beginning in 2009 and continuing through 2024, Dr. Tan routinely and surreptitiously underdosed patients, injected them with free samples or a different medication than prescribed, injected them with expired medication, and injected them with medications purchased by other patients. Covert video recordings of Dr. Tan treating two of her patients confirmed her deceit.

The Tans then knowingly billed insurance plans as if Dr. Tan had provided a proper injection to each patient. Specifically, the Tans claimed to have administered 4,829 units of the medications to patients, and billed the insurance plans for that amount, despite only purchasing 369 units of medication.

Mr. Tan helped execute the scheme in part by creating and submitting fraudulent insurance claims and ordering insufficient medication for the clinic. The Tans also made false statements about the length of Dr. Tan's office visits with her patients and submitted fraudulent claims to insurance plans for services that Dr. Tan never provided. The Tans' fraud scheme created significant health risks to the patients and caused a loss of over $12.5 to more than 10 insurance plans.

In July 2019, law enforcement executed a search warrant on the clinic, uncovering stockpiles of expired medications prescribed to patients for at-home use, free samples clearly marked as not for sale, and improperly stored and reconstituted syringes of medications. Some of the expired medications, pictured below, were intermingled with other medication stored at the clinic.

Following the search warrant execution, the Tans appeared to temporarily begin purchasing all the medications they billed insurance companies for. In 2021, they reverted to fraudulent billing practices, continuing the scheme until they were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2024.

The Tans also created false tax records to conceal the health care fraud scheme. The Tans knew that the clinic had not purchased the quantity of medications that they billed insurance plans for, and they fraudulently overstated the clinic's expenses on the clinic's tax returns for 2014, 2015, and 2017, allowing them to falsely underreport the clinic's income. From 2018 to 2021, the Tans willfully failed to file tax returns for the clinic. The Tans' tax fraud scheme caused a loss of over $4.2 million to the IRS.

In November 2025, the Tans both pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and one count of tax evasion.

In 2024 and 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office seized approximately $10.4 million in health care fraud proceeds from the Tans. At sentencing, the Court ordered Dr. Tan to serve three years on supervised release following the completion of her custodial sentence, as well as the scheduling of a separate hearing to determine restitution. As part of their plea agreements, the Tans agreed to forfeit the seized funds to the U.S. The Tans also submitted today a $6.3 million payment towards their future restitution judgment. The Tans further paid the U.S. an additional $1.8 million to settle civil claims under the False Claims Act arising from the health care fraud scheme. Dr. Tan has also surrendered her medical license.

More information about the case is available at https://www.justice.gov/usao-ak/united-states-v-tan-et-al. Victims who believe they may be entitled to restitution can email [email protected] for more information.

"For well over a decade, Dr. Tan and her husband operated a fraud scheme and squirreled away millions of dollars at the expense of their patients, callously disregarding the medical needs of those suffering from debilitating diseases so they could become rich," said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman for the District of Alaska. "Finally, their dangerous deceit is over. Law enforcement seized their fraudulent retirement plan, and Dr. Tan will be spending years in federal prison. I want to thank our attorneys and incredible law enforcement partners for diligently seeking justice in this case."

"For over 15 years, the Tans deceived unsuspecting patients seeking treatment for debilitating diseases while exploiting the TRICARE program for personal gain," said John Helsing, Special Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service's Western Field Office. "As the investigative arm of the Department of Defense's Office of Inspector General, DCIS remains fully committed to holding accountable those who defraud TRICARE and endanger our nation's warfighters, retirees, and their family members who rely on this program for care."

"Mr. and Mrs. Tan didn't just steal from the government or the healthcare system; they let their patients suffer from treatable diseases for financial gain," said Carrie Nordyke, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation's Seattle Field Office. "This ruling speaks to the human cost of fraud and our duty to hold criminals accountable for it."

The DCIS Western Field Office and IRS Criminal Investigation Seattle Division led the investigation, with assistance from the FBI Anchorage Field Office, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General Criminal Investigations Division, Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations and State of Alaska Division of Insurance Investigation Unit.

Trial Attorney Dominick Giovanniello of the Criminal Division's Tax Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth Beausang and Bill Reed of the District of Alaska prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jackie Traini of the District of Alaska led the civil fraud investigation.

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