{"id":663781,"date":"2026-03-18T06:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663781\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T06:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:13:16","slug":"anchorage-doctor-sentenced-in-multi-million-dollar-health-care-and-tax-fraud-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663781\/","title":{"rendered":"Anchorage doctor sentenced in multi-million-dollar health care and tax fraud case"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Anchorage physician Dr. Claribel Tan<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Tan will also serve two years of supervised release after prison. Restitution is expected to total at least $17 million.<\/p>\n

Her husband, Daniel Tan, was sentenced to three years of probation with two of those years to be served in home confinement.<\/p>\n

Tan previously pleaded guilty to charges tied to what federal prosecutors described as multi-million-dollar health care and tax fraud schemes.<\/p>\n

According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The DOJ said Claribel Tan admitted she caused the submission of millions of dollars in false and fraudulent claims to health care benefit programs.<\/p>\n

The courtroom was full of many of Claribel Tan\u2019s former patients waiting to provide victim impact statements. <\/p>\n

Erinn Marteney, a nurse, said she was falsely diagnosed with a heart murmur and went untreated for multiple sclerosis, adding that her overall quality of life has diminished, which ultimately impacts her entire family. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will never know how different my life would be if I had received the correct diagnosis,\u201d Marteney said.<\/p>\n

Brett Luna, United States Airforce veteran, said he had been seeing Tan for rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were mistreating me, it was intentional, calculated, egregious,\u201d Luna said. \u201cThey fully prevented me from participating in my own life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dawn Whisenhunt was a patient of Tan from 2007 to 2023 and spoke through tears about being kept sick on purpose for 16 years. She said for years she believed her disease was being treated as well as it could be and considered the Tan\u2019s to be family. After learning of the fraud accusations, Whisenhunt described the news as the \u201cmost painful and utter betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not every former patient was there to provide a critical statement. Susie Jolly said it was Tan who on two separate occasions accurately caught serious conditions \u2014 a hernia and blood clots \u2014 that she believes would have cost her her life had it not been diagnosed in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had a reason not to trust her and if your doors were open, I would come,\u201d Jolly said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman said victim impact statements underscored the broader damage caused by the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrimes like this that are economic crimes aren\u2019t just about the dollars. They\u2019re about so much more,\u201d Heyman said.<\/p>\n

Heyman said the length of the sentence was significant in a white-collar case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a white-collar offense, when you receive multi-year sentences, those are significant,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe 78-month\u2026sentence is very significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just before sentencing, Tan delivered a statement of her own apologizing for her actions. She said much of what she learned to do was during her time in the Philippines when prescribing expired medications was a way of trying to save her patients money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no excuse for what I\u2019ve done. What I did was illegal and it was wrong,\u201d Tan said. \u201cI\u2019m very sorry for what I\u2019ve done.\u201d <\/p>\n

At one point during her statement, Tan turned to the gallery of former patients and kneeled before them while apologizing, an act that Heyman later criticized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn over 25 years of experience, I\u2019ve never seen a defendant kneel before the audience and the court\u2026 It was disingenuous,\u201d Heyman said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t come off as someone that was truly sorry for their conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added he believed greed drove the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that entire recitation, the one word you did not hear was greed, and that\u2019s what motivated this crime,\u201d Heyman said.<\/p>\n

Heyman said he did not recall one single tip that started the investigation, but said insurers began scrutinizing billing.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsurance companies originally started looking at the billing and questioning the billing amounts that were coming in versus the amounts that were then being ordered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The restitution figure is expected to be finalized through the court process. Claribel Tan\u2019s supervised release term begins after she completes her prison sentence.<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Anchorage physician Dr. Claribel Tan was sentenced today to 78 months in federal prison…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":663782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[934,2526,52195,280836,280835,280833,820,210,1141,1142,1083,280834,50,18401,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-663781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-alaska","tag-alaska-news","tag-anchorage","tag-anchorage-crime","tag-anchorage-news","tag-claribel-tan","tag-fraud","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medical","tag-medical-fraud","tag-news","tag-tax-evasion","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116248707446240865","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}