- Nicknames
- Undercover Alias: Tony Coriasso
- Moon Rock Hunter
- Joseph Gutheinz (Joseph Richard Gutheinz, Jr.) is a lawyer, college instructor, writer and is considered an authority on stolen and missing moon rocks, space law and aviation security. He is married to Lori Gutheinz and has six sons, Joseph, Christopher, Michael, James, William and David and he has 11 grandchildren. He is a retired Senior Special Agent with NASA Office of Inspector General and a former Special Agent with United States Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and FAA Civil Aviation Security. He is a former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer and Aviator. He a former adviser to the Coalition for an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights. He teaches for the University of Phoenix and has formerly taught for Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Central Texas College and Alvin Community College.He is a former Commissioned Member on the Texas Commission on Fire Protection; a former Member of the Texas Sex Offender Treatment Council and a former Member of the Texas Criminal Justice Advisory Committee on Medical and Mental Impairments; to serve on each he was first appointed by the Governor of Texas and then confirmed by the Texas State Senate.
He has six college degrees, eight teaching credentials and ten law licenses. He has earned awards from six Federal agencies and one state and one county, to include the NASA Exceptional Service Medal; the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency Career Achievement Award; the NASA Superior Accomplishment Award; a Special Commendation form the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas; the United States Army Meritorious Service Medal; an Honorary Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma designation; an Honorary Deputy Sheriff of the Harris County Sheriffs Department designation; the United States Army aviator's badge and the Honor Graduate pin from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center's Criminal Investigator's Course, for graduating first in his class. He was either the task force leader or case agent for the following NASA cases: The investigation of the Russian Space Station (Mir) fire and collision; Omniplan, the largest count indictment and conviction in NASA history; the investigation of Jerry Whittredge, an astronaut impersonator that talked his way into NASA Mission Control; the investigation of Lockheed Martin that resulted in a 7.1 million dollar recovery; the investigation of Boeing North America; the investigation of Rockwell Space Operations Company; the investigation of United Space Alliance; and for an undercover sting operation known as Operation Lunar Eclipse, where the Honduras Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock was seized.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jean Gutheinz
- SpouseLori Ann Gutheinz(January 16, 1976 - present) (6 children)
- Gender / Gender identityMale
- On April 4th, 2012 Joe Gutheinz and his graduate student Sandra Shelton were on hand at the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston West Virginia for the unveiling of a plaque in their honor. Sandra Shelton was honored for tracking down the West Virginia Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock and Joe Gutheinz was honored for his Moon Rock Project which facilitated student investigations of this kind. The plaque was placed next to the West Virginia Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock in the State Museum.
- Joe Gutheinz is perhaps best known for an undercover law enforcement sting operation called Operation Lunar Eclipse where he and his team of Agents from NASA's Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Customs recovered the Honduras Goodwill Moon Rock, which had an asking price of 5 million dollars. Gutheinz, as a Senior Special Agent with NASA Office of Inspector General led and went undercover in this sting operation and created a fictitious company called John's Estates Sales to add legitimacy to his cover story. He placed an advertisement in USA Today on September 18, 1998 titled Moon Rocks Wanted, which was designed to attract con-artists selling bogus Apollo moon rocks. What his team did not expect was that they would recover the real thing, marking the first such recovery in history. Later, as a college instructor at two colleges he had an assignment called the Moon Rock Project, where up to a 1,000 students over a period of ten years hunted down Apollo era moon rocks all over the world.
- Joe Gutheinz led a 9 agency Federal law enforcement task force investigation for all four years he went to law school. His task force investigation into Omniplan Corporation, a NASA prime and subcontractor, led to the largest count indictment and conviction in NASA history and the closure of 7 companies, 5 after being convicted of felonies. He earned several awards for this investigation, to include a commendation from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
- In 1997, Joe Gutheinz was the lead criminal investigator (Senior Special Agent) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of Inspector General into the Mir Space Station fire and collision and the theft of missing Pre-launch Assessment and Review (PAR) tapes, which was part of his investigation into the dangers of the Mir. He also investigated the Russian Space Program. For his efforts he received the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Superior Accomplishment Award.
- Joe Gutheinz investigated, interviewed, filed a complaint on and then testified against an infamous astronaut impersonator who talked his was into NASA Mission Control during a mission on a strength of a resume that said he was an astronaut, medal of honor winner, top gun trophy recipient and CIA Regent with a secret, which he told, he claimed he was A CIA assassin known as Black Death by the Russians, with 5 confirmed kills in Central America. He also received two VIP tours of Navy bases, obtained schematics to the space shuttle propulsion system; was permitted to fly a Navy simulator and at the time of his arrest was seeking to fly Navy jets at Pensacola Naval Air Station. In court he claimed his attorney was William Jefferson Clinton.
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