Con artists hoping to hustle a fast buck from the federal government quickly learn that Paul Mussenden is a marathoner.
Mussenden is an assistant U.S. attorney who concentrates on civil litigation. In three months this summer, he and his team helped taxpayers recoup nearly $16 million in fraud settlements. Nearly $11 million came from D.C. in a settlement over St. Elizabeths Hospital, which is set to be taken over by the feds under the deal Mussenden worked out.
The 39-year-old has accomplished all of this without raising his voice, friends and colleagues say.
“He just works his tail off,” said Rudy Contreras, chief of the U.S. attorney’s civil division. “He essentially works all the time.”
Mussenden told The Examiner that he has wanted to be a lawyer since he was a kid. Born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he worked as a messenger for a lawyer when he was in high school.
“Everybody came to her for advice,” Mussenden said. “And I looked up to that.”
You have to be willing to work hard to root out fraud in D.C. Take the St. Elizabeths case: What started out as a few Medicare irregularities in 2004 turned into an overhaul of an entire hospital system, with phony bills going back to 1993.
“They had a lot of core, systemic problems with their records and that really affected quality of care,” Mussenden said.
The St. Elizabeths case wasn’t the only time this year that Mussenden tangled with the District. Earlier this year, he worked out a nearly $2 million settlement with the city’s schools after it emerged that the schools had bilked the federal government out of millions in grants for migrant children.
“It was a fairly blatant misuse of funds,” Mussenden said. “It sent the very important message that individuals and governments have to be held accountable.”
When he’s not saving taxpayers from fraud, “most of my time outside is on the road, running,” Mussenden said. He has run in at least 11 marathons.
His athleticism is appreciated by his colleagues in civil division — traditionally viewed as the geek squad of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Contreras said.
“Several years ago, the office actually had a relay race among the other divisions. He just scorched everybody,” Contreras said. “Everyone was like, ‘Who was that guy? Must be a ringer.’ ”
