Joseph Richard Gutheinz (born August 13, 1955) is an American attorney, college instructor, commissioner, writer, and former Army intelligence officer, Army aviator, and Federal law enforcement officer. He is known as the founder of the "Moon Rock Project" which aims to track down missing Apollo Moon rock samples.
Education and career
Joseph Gutheinz's father was a lieutenant colonel in the US Marines and a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and his mother, Rita O’Leary Gutheinz, was a Marine Corps enlisted woman. He holds six college degrees from Monterey Peninsula College, California State University, Sacramento (where he has been named a distinguished alumni), the University of Southern California and South Texas College of Law, and eight teaching credentials and ten law licenses. He is an attorney at law (1996 to present) He has taught for Central Texas College, Alvin Community College, Thurgood Marshall Law School, and for the University of Phoenix from 2002 to present. He is a former Commissioner on the Texas Commission on Fire Protection (2013–), having been appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry. He has served as a Member of the Texas Council on Sex Offender Treatment (2009 to 2012). He has served as a Member of the Texas Criminal Justice Advisory Committee on Medical and Mental Impairments (2004 to 2008). He is a former advisor to the Coalition for an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights.
Gutheinz is also the founder of the law practice Gutheinz Law Firm, LLP. Two of his sons are partners in the firm, both of whom are also Army veterans as he is.
NASA Office of Inspector General cases
Gutheinz led the Omniplan task force investigation, which determined that Omniplan, a NASA contractor, was submitting false claims to NASA. The company had claimed it was leasing through three companies that were in fact shell companies controlled by Omniplan's owner Ralph Montijo. Gutheinz created the task force with 25 agents, inspectors, auditors and a financial analyst from eight agencies. The investigation led to the closure of seven companies, making it one of the highest profile in NASA history at that time. Gutheinz subsequently gave a speech to the International Business Forum about the Omniplan case, a speech attended by one of the principal defense attorneys in that case.
In the 1990s Gutheinz also served as the case agent in a joint investigation with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General investigating the Arkansas Aerospace Education Center. Gutheinz led the Rockwell, United Space Alliance and Boeing North America task force investigation that resulted in a Federal civil lawsuit and an out of court settlement. In the civil suit the government alleged that Rockwell Space Operation's Company knew of Omniplan's fraudulent leases and failed to properly disclose that information to NASA or law enforcement. Gutheinz also investigated and arrested Jerry Alan Whittredge, an astronaut impersonator. Gutheinz also investigated the Russian space program and a fire and collision on the Mir space station.
Operation Lunar Eclipse
Gutheinz led and went undercover in Operation Lunar Eclipse, a sting operation to recover the Honduras Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock. The Honduras Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock had been offered to Gutheinz for $5 million, and Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot put up the money which facilitated the rock's recovery. The three agencies in Operation Lunar Eclipse were NASA Office of Inspector General (SSA Joseph Gutheinz aka Tony Coriasso), the United States Postal Inspection Service (Inspector Bob Cregger aka John Marta) and United States Customs (SA David Attwood and SA Dwight Weikel). Operation Lunar Eclipse was designed to catch con artists selling terrestrial rocks and dust and offering them as Apollo-era Moon rocks and lunar dust. Upon determining that the seller of the Honduras Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock was selling a genuine Apollo-era Moon rock, Gutheinz investigated further and determined that there was a lack of accountability on all the Apollo 11 and 17 Moon Rocks and lunar dust that the Nixon, Ford and Carter Administrations gifted away to the states and nations of the world. Gutheinz had previously requested in 1998–1999 that NASA OIG attempt to account for the gifted Moon rocks and lunar dust. In December 2011 NASA OIG revealed the finding of an audit they conducted on loaned, not gifted, Apollo era lunar samples, which revealed a lack of accountability by both NASA and the recipient individuals and entities.