About Attorney Joel Hesch
Mr. Hesch's 15 plus years of Department of Justice experience translates into over 25,000 hours directly analyzing and pursuing alleged fraud against 20 different federal agencies. Mr. Hesch personally worked on fraud cases resulting in over $1.5 billion ($1,500,000,000.00) in judgments and recoveries, and which paid over a quarter of a billion dollars in rewards to citizens.
Mr. Hesch understands the DOJ reward program very well. At the time Mr. Hesch was hired by DOJ in the Civil Fraud Section in Washington, D.C., which is the office overseeing the national whistleblower reward program, the government reward program was still in its infantcy having paid out merely $10 million in total rewards. While Mr. Hesch was helping administer the reward program, DOJ paid out $2 billion in rewards to citizens.
When the then largest whistleblower case in history was being pursued, the Director of the Civil Fraud Section turned to Mr. Hesch to join a team of select DOJ attorneys. They recovered a staggering $641 million from one company. For his effort, Mr. Hesch received a Special Commendation Award for outstanding service. During his career, Mr. Hesch also received a Meritorious Award and was twice bestowed the Special Achievement Award for sustained and superior performance of duty in combating fraud. In addition, NASA gave Mr. Hesch an accomodation for combatting fraud against the Space Shuttle Program. Mr. Hesch was also selected to be part of the national "Pharmaceutical Fraud Team" at DOJ. While at DOJ, he was also appointed to provide testimony on behalf of DOJ in a court proceeding as to the meaning and application of the False Claims Act's "Public Disclosure Bar" and "Original Source Exception."
The Director of the Civil Frauds Section made these statements in Mr. Hesch's DOJ work appraisals:
As has been true for many years, Mr. Hesch continues to show dedication to the office's mission of combating fraud and to working selflessly on whatever cases can best utilize his talents. We recognize and appreciate his fine efforts. . . . Mr. Hesch is a delightful colleague and has the ability to work well on a team as well as independently. . . . Joel has significantly exceeded expectations.
Mr. Hesch left a rewarding 15 year career with DOJ to become a law school professor, and he now represents whistleblowers who file for rewards for reporting fraud.
Mr. Hesch is now known as a leading national expert on whistleblower reward programs and fraud against the government. In addition to writing books and numerous media articles regarding these programs, in 2008, Mr. Hesch filed a legal brief before the United States Supreme Court supporting the claims of a whistleblower. Click here to read that brief. In 2007 and again in 2008, he published scholarly law review articles regarding the DOJ reward program, which was cited six times in two differnet briefs to the United States Supreme Court in two cases. Click here to read one of his law review articles. See his resume under the "Media Info" link for more information on magazine articles he authored or cited him as an expert.
He is dedicated to putting his expertise to work for you and other whistleblowers.