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An Anchorage doctor and her husband, who prosecutors say orchestrated a lengthy, multimillion-dollar health care fraud scheme, were sentenced in federal court Tuesday after pleading guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges last year.
A federal grand jury indicted Dr. Claribel Tan, 61, and 70-year-old Daniel Tan in 2024 after investigators uncovered what they described as a 15-year-long scam the duo operated from their Anchorage rheumatology clinic that netted them millions in unlawful earnings. The couple failed to pay taxes of more than $4 million on profits from the scheme, prosecutors said.
The Tans each pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and one count of tax evasion last November, according to court records.
“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,” Michael J. Heyman, U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska, said in a prepared statement.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason sentenced Dr. Tan to 6.5 years in prison — the full 78-month prison sentence prosecutors asked for, according to a March 13 sentencing memorandum — followed by three years of supervised release, court records show.
Dr. Tan sought a sentence between 33 and 41 months of house arrest to care for her ailing husband, according to a March 13 sentencing memorandum filed by her attorneys. Tan also surrendered her medical license, prosecutors said.
Daniel Tan, who suffers from numerous serious health conditions, was sentenced to three years of probation, two of which are to be served under house arrest, according to court records and the statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alaska.
Between 2009 and 2024, Tans received $12.5 million from health insurance reimbursements for thousands of medical injections they had not bought or administered to patients they were treating for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis, prosecutors said.
The Tans misled hundreds of patients, according to prosecutors, by injecting them with different medications than prescribed or expired medication doses, among other deceptions.
Prosecutors are also seeking at least $16.7 million in restitution from the Tans, according to sentencing memos.
Prosecutors have already seized $10.4 million in illegal proceeds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alaska. The Tans also submitted a $6.3 million payment on Tuesday to be applied to a final restitution amount, according to the statement. In addition, the couple has paid $1.8 million to settle civil health care fraud claims, prosecutors said.
A restitution hearing is scheduled for May 6, according to court records.
