On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Paul John Herbert, accused of defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs, was sentenced in the Hampden Courtroom at the federal courthouse in Springfield, Mass. (Courtesy of The Republican )
(Tribune News Service) — A Western Massachusetts man who defrauded the Department of Veterans Affairs out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and falsely applied for a Purple Heart medal will spend a year in home confinement, but was spared a court order to pay back nearly $300,000.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni sentenced Paul John Herbert, of Shelburne Falls, to two years of supervised release, according to Christina DiIorio-Sterling, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. He will serve the first year in home confinement.
He will not have to pay restitution to the VA, DiIorio-Sterling said, despite the government’s recommendation for Herbert to pay $299,733 to the department.
In March, Herbert pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements. He was indicted by a grand jury in September 2024.
Herbert served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years, between 1989 and 1993, and spent another two years in the reserves, before he was honorably discharged, according to an 86-page sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield on Monday by his attorney.
Herbert started submitting false statements on Oct. 13, 2010, about being wounded by a roadside bomb, according to court records.
In the 13 years that followed, he was overpaid $344,000 in disability benefits by the government, the records say.
He also fraudulently filed for a Purple Heart — reserved for those wounded or killed while serving in the U.S. military — for injuries he falsely claimed he received in the roadside bombing.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Herbert on Oct. 24, 2018, asked his representative in Congress to help with an application for a Purple Heart. “The request contained a notarized letter from Herbert, that falsely stated he had been injured by a roadside explosion,” the office said.
It said that making a false statement can bring a prison sentence of up to five years, with three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 — “or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.”
But sentences actually imposed are based upon U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes.
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