Former Marine lied to get Purple Heart for money, feds say. He’s sentenced
A former Marine fabricated a Purple Heart application — lying about being injured in a roadside explosion while deployed — to get disability money, federal prosecutors said.
Paul John Herbert, 54, has now been sentenced to two years of supervised release with the first year in home confinement and was ordered to pay a restitution fee of $299,733.25, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a June 18 news release.
According to a sentencing memorandum, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs overpaid Herbert $344,040 based on his false statements.
McClatchy News reached out to Herbert’s attorney June 20 but did not receive an immediate response.
In a plea agreement, Herbert said he was “very ashamed” of his actions.
Herbert’s false claims
Herbert served in the Marine Corps from Dec. 11, 1989, to Dec. 10, 1993, when he was honorably discharged, prosecutors said.
However, in 2010 Herbert began submitting “numerous” false claims for disability compensation, including an application for a Purple Heart which he submitted Oct. 24, 2018, according to prosecutors.
On his application, Herbert lied about being in an explosion June 18, 1991, while stationed in Northern Iraq, prosecutors said. He said this explosion caused him to suffer a traumatic brain injury, according to prosecutors.
In a plea agreement, Herbert said he only remembers seeing “stars” and a “bright flash” and a few days later was taken to an Air Force Base in Turkey “with major headache, vomiting, and diarrhea.”
He also got a notarized letter of support from a Marine Corps sergeant to go along with the application, according to the plea.
No supporting evidence found
During a 2016 visit with a nurse practitioner, Herbert reiterated his symptoms but said he couldn’t remember what happened, prosecutors said.
But the nurse couldn’t find any evidence confirming Herbert’s story, prosecutors said.
“His subsequent work in high functioning positions as (a) law enforcement officer and military security personnel was inconsistent with his claims,” the nurse wrote, according to the plea.
Later, in 2021, Herbert confessed that he lied and manipulated a sergeant to write a false letter, prosecutors said.
He was indicted in September 2023 and pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements in March 2025, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published June 20, 2025 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Former Marine lied to get Purple Heart for money, feds say. He’s sentenced."
