Man uses hundreds of baseball players’ names in scheme to steal $550K, feds say
A Tennessee man, who has the same legal name as Babe Ruth, used hundreds of dead and retired professional baseball players’ names in an “elaborate” scheme to steal more than $550,000, federal prosecutors said.
George Herman Ruth, 69, of Morristown, is charged with mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, money laundering and other federal offenses in a 91-count indictment, according to an Aug. 21 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Information on Ruth’s legal representation was not listed in court records the morning of Aug. 22.
The charges against Ruth come after he was involved in a separate, seven-year scheme in which prosecutors said he defrauded the Social Security Administration, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Justice Department. He was accused of fraudulently obtaining, or trying to obtain, more than $1 million in Social Security benefits.
In July 2020, he was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison in that case, which was prosecuted in Indiana, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
In a statement at the time, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Josh J. Minkler, said “Mr. Ruth has tried making a career of getting something for nothing.”
“He was not that good at it and this sentence should put an end to it,” Minkler added.
But prison did not stop Ruth from starting a different scam, according to prosecutors.
From January 2023 through July 2025, Ruth found different pending class action lawsuits and filed “hundreds of fraudulent claim forms” in the names of professional baseball players who were dead or retired, prosecutors in the Eastern District of Tennessee said.
He also used Social Security numbers belonging to “numerous unwitting victims” when filing the claims, according to prosecutors.
The Major League Baseball players, who were not named in Ruth’s indictment, played for teams located across the country and for the Toronto Bluejays, the filing shows.
Some of the professional athletes include, according to the indictment:
- A retired pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres
- A second and third baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cleveland Indians who is deceased
- A retired first baseman for the Toronto Bluejays, Florida Marlins and New York Mets
In the indictment, prosecutors wrote Ruth used “the fraud proceeds he obtained to pay for personal expenses and trips, such as a trip to Las Vegas and to casinos in Virginia, North Carolina and elsewhere.”
As part of his scam, Ruth opened different post boxes in eastern Tennessee and established a phony business, El Mundo Marketing LLC, for money laundering, according to prosecutors.
Ruth is also facing charges of making false statements to his probation officer and possessing firearms as a convicted felon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
His trial is scheduled for Jan. 27, according to prosecutors.
If Ruth is found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison, as well as a “mandatory, consecutive two-year sentence,” up to three years of supervised release and a maximum potential fine of $250,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Morristown, where Ruth is from, is about a 50-mile drive northeast from Knoxville.
.jpg)