ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (BNO NEWS) – An Anchorage, Alaska man on Thursday was sentenced to prison following convictions for health care fraud and for obtaining narcotic controlled substances by misrepresentation and forgery, prosecutors said on Friday.

Stephen M. Young was sentenced to serve nine months in federal prison after pleading guilty in November 2009 to carrying out a lengthy fraudulent scheme to obtain prescription on narcotic pain-killing medication from numerous physicians, dentists, and nurse practitioners in Anchorage and Wasilla.

Young admitted that on over 100 occasions from 2005 to 2009, he lied to numerous health care professionals in order to obtain the medication. As part of the plea agreement, Young also admitted that he had fraudulently obtained at least $69,416.40 in federal employee health insurance benefits as a result of his scheme. He agreed to make restitution to the United States for the fraudulently obtained benefits.

The U.S. District Court Judge noted that there was no indication that Young was distributing any of the medication and that his fraud scheme was motivated to feed his own addiction to the narcotic pain-killing medication.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Office of Inspector General conducted this investigation.

KISKA, ALASKA (BNO NEWS) — A moderate earthquake struck south of Alaska’s Kiska Volcano on Saturday, seismologists said. No damage or injuries were reported, nor expected.

The earthquake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 5.3, happened around 10.08 a.m. local time (20.08 UTC) about 30 miles south of Kiska, a tiny island that is home to Kiska Volcano. Kiska is an island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 islands that extend southwestward from Alaska into the northern Pacific Ocean and is often struck by powerful earthquakes, usually without causing damage or casualties as its population is very low. More earthquakes occur in the Aleutian Islands region than in all other 49 U.S. states combined.

The magnitude of Saturday’s earthquake was too small to cause a tsunami threat. “An earthquake has occurred with a magnitude such that a tsunami will not be generated,” the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said in a tsunami seismic information statement.