An Anchorage physician and her husband have admitted to orchestrating a $12.5 million health care fraud scheme, as well as evading more than $4 million in taxes related to their clinic’s profits over several years.
According to court records, Dr. Claribel Tan, 61, and Daniel Tan, 70, operated a rheumatology clinic in Anchorage where Dr. Tan treated patients with autoimmune and musculoskeletal diseases. The couple deceived patients about the medications administered during office visits and submitted fraudulent claims for drugs they had not purchased.
Beginning in 2009, Dr. Tan underdosed patients or injected them with free samples, expired medication, or medications intended for other patients. Despite this, the Tans billed insurance companies as if full doses of the correct medications were given to each patient. In total, they claimed to have administered 4,829 units of medication but only bought 369 units.
Daniel Tan contributed by submitting false insurance claims and ensuring the clinic ordered insufficient quantities of medication. The couple also made false statements regarding the length of office visits and billed insurers for services that were never provided. Their actions resulted in an estimated loss of $12,522,446 across more than ten insurance plans.
The Tans concealed their scheme through falsified tax records. They overstated business expenses on tax returns for several years and failed to file any returns from 2018 to 2021, resulting in approximately $4,249,509 in losses to the IRS.
Authorities seized around $10.47 million from the Tans between 2024 and 2025 as proceeds from health care fraud. As part of their plea deals, both agreed to forfeit these funds and pay an additional $6.3 million toward restitution judgments along with $1.85 million under civil False Claims Act settlements related to the fraud scheme. Dr. Tan has surrendered her medical license.
Sentencing is pending; both face up to ten years in prison for health care fraud and five years for tax fraud offenses.
More information about the case can be found at https://www.justice.gov/usao-ak/united-states-v-tan-et-al.
“U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman of the District of Alaska, Special Agent in Charge John Helsing, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Western Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Carrie Nordyke of the IRS Criminal Investigation Seattle Field Office made the announcement.”
Multiple agencies participated in investigating this case including DCIS Western Field Office; IRS Criminal Investigation Seattle Division; 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 (Tax Division), Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth Beausang and William Reed (District of Alaska), and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jackie Traini (civil fraud investigation) are prosecuting this case.
