Anchorage Doctor Sentenced to Six and a Half Years for $12.5 Million Health Care Fraud and Evading Over $4 Million in Taxes
On March 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Dr. Claribel Tan, a rheumatologist in Anchorage, Alaska, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release, and that her husband and co-defendant, Daniel Tan, was sentenced to three years of probation, with two years to be served in home confinement. The department said that over a 15-year scheme the couple defrauded health insurance plans of more than $12.5 million through false injections and evaded more than $4.2 million in taxes on the profits.
According to court documents, Claribel Tan operated a rheumatology clinic in Anchorage from 2005, treating autoimmune and musculoskeletal diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, with her husband serving as office manager. From 2009 through 2024, the Tans injected patients with free samples, expired medications and medications other than those prescribed, then billed insurance plans as if proper injections had been given: they claimed to have administered 4,829 units of the medications while purchasing only 369 units. They also made false statements about the length of office visits and billed for services never provided, and improperly stored expired medications and not-for-sale samples, creating significant health risks for patients. The scheme caused losses of over $12.5 million to more than 10 insurance plans.
On taxes, the couple overstated the clinic's expenses on its 2014, 2015 and 2017 returns to underreport income, and willfully failed to file clinic returns from 2018 to 2021, causing a total loss to the IRS of more than $4.2 million. After federal officers searched the clinic in July 2019, the Tans briefly began purchasing the medications they billed for, but reverted to the fraud in 2021 and persisted until they were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2024. In November 2025, both pleaded guilty in the District of Alaska 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 fraud proceeds from the Tans, which they agreed to forfeit under their plea agreements; they also submitted a $6.3 million payment toward their future restitution judgment, to be set at a separate hearing, paid approximately $1.8 million to settle civil False Claims Act claims, and Claribel Tan surrendered her medical license.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国司法部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼全景（资料照片）。APK 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库。 / Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. (full view, file photo). Photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed image library.
