Joel Hesch devoted over fifteen years (1990 to 2006) as a Trial Attorney with the Civil Fraud Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. This is the office responsible for the modern day DOJ Reward Program. His DOJ experience translates into over 25,000 hours directly analyzing and pursuing alleged fraud against 20 different federal agencies. While at DOJ, he personally worked on fraud cases resulting in over a billion dollars in judgments and recoveries, which paid more than $250 million in rewards to average citizens for reporting fraud.
When the then largest whistleblower case in history was being pursued, the Director of the Civil Fraud Section asked Mr. Hesch to join a team of select DOJ attorneys. Together, they recovered $641 million from one company. For his efforts, Mr. Hesch received a Special Commendation Award for outstanding service. He 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, he received an award from NASA for fighting fraud under the NASA Space Shuttle Program.
The Director of the Civil Frauds Section made these statements in Mr. Hesch’s 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.”
At the end of fiscal year 2006, Mr. Hesch left a rewarding career with DOJ to represent whistleblowers and to become a law school professor. He has written a scholarly law review article suggesting standards for the government and courts to follow regarding the “original source exception” within the DOJ Reward Program, which was cited five times in a brief to the United States Supreme Court. He has written other legal articles and two books helping whistleblowers. He has also helped whistleblowers receive millions in rewards for reporting fraud against the government.
If you want to read more about the $1.75 billion in whistleblower reward cases Mr. Hesch has handled click here.