ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Anchorage physician Dr. Claribel Tan was sentenced today to 78 months in federal prison on Count 1, health care fraud, and 60 months on Count 2, tax evasion, to be served concurrently.
Tan will also serve two years of supervised release after prison. Restitution is expected to total at least $17 million.
Her husband, Daniel Tan, was sentenced to three years of probation with two of those years to be served in home confinement.
Tan previously pleaded guilty to charges tied to what federal prosecutors described as multi-million-dollar health care and tax fraud schemes.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska, Claribel Tan and her husband pleaded guilty in 2025. Prosecutors said the case involved a $12.5 million health care fraud scheme as well as a separate tax fraud scheme.
The DOJ said…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.