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GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A Tennessee man is facing more than 90 federal charges after he was accused of submitting hundreds of fraudulent class action lawsuit claims using the names of dead or retired baseball players.
On August 12, 69 year-old George Herman Ruth, of Morristown, was indicted on 91 criminal counts, including mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, and money laundering. The indictment was unsealed on Thursday.
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While he’s accused of fraudulently using the names of dead or retired baseball players, George Herman Ruth is listed as his legal name on court paperwork. It’s unclear if he may have changed his name to match that of baseball icon George Herman “Babe” Ruth.
According to the indictment, between January 2023 and July 10, 2025, Ruth allegedly carried out an elaborate nationwide scheme. He’s accused of submitting hundreds of fraudulent class forms to class action administrators around the country. The Department of Justice alleges that Ruth found pending class action lawsuits and used the names of deceased or retired professional baseball players along with the Social Security numbers of unwitting victims.
Part of the alleged scheme also reportedly involved Ruth opening post office boxes around Tennessee and using a fake business, El Mundo Marketing LLC, to obtain an account where he laundered the money from the claims. The Department of Justice said Ruth is accused of obtaining or attempting to obtain more than $550,000 through the scheme.
In 2020, Ruth was sentenced to 56 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service. Court documents show he was previously incarcerated from approximately 1984 to 2014 with brief periods of release from custody. He was on supervised release when he was charged in Tennessee.
If convicted, he could face up to 20 years plus a mandatory, consecutive two-year sentence, a term of supervised release up to three years, and a fine up to $250,000.
