Aflac Employee In California Charged In $4M Disability Scam

A Redlands woman was convicted in federal court Tuesday of bilking $4 million from her employer, AFLAC. Following a two-week trial, Patricia Diane Smith Sledge, 60, was found guilty on six counts of mail fraud. She sold disability insurance policies to sham companies and people who supposedly worked for those companies, according to a U.S. Attorney’s office statement. Sledge then orchestrated the filing of fraudulent disability claims and directed the purported employees to doctors that would sign off on the fake injury claims, according to the dispatch. Sledge also was convicted of witness tampering for encouraging witnesses to lie to investigators.