A Morristown man who shares a name with baseball legend Babe Ruth has been indicted on federal charges accusing him of using the identities of dozens of former Major League Baseball players — including some who are deceased — to fraudulently claim payouts from nationwide class action settlements.
George Herman Ruth, 69, was indicted last week in U.S. District Court in Greeneville on 91 counts, including mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, money laundering, making false statements to a probation officer and possessing firearms as a convicted felon.
Prosecutors allege Ruth tried to obtain more than $550,000 through the scheme, which involved hundreds of false claims in multiple lawsuits.
Ruth is accused of opening more than a dozen post office boxes in Hamblen and Jefferson counties under his own name and under the names of sham companies. He then submitted fraudulent claim forms to settlement administrators across the country, sometimes using the names of former professional baseball players or variations of his own name, prosecutors said. Social Security numbers belonging to unwitting victims were also used, according to the indictment.
Among the cases in which Ruth sought payouts were class actions involving claims of racial discrimination against a staffing agency, a Citibank robocall lawsuit, a telemarketing suit against PillPack, another telemarketing case against Deere Credit Services, and even a settlement tied to a Chicago smokestack implosion that left a neighborhood covered in dust, court records state.
The indictment does not identify the players whose names were used, but it describes them as including a retired pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres, as well as members of now-defunct teams such as the Philadelphia Athletics, the St. Louis Browns and the Kansas City Packers. In all, the indictment says Ruth used the identities of 24 former MLB players, some of whom are deceased.
To bolster his claims, prosecutors say Ruth created fake W-2s and other documents. He allegedly spent the proceeds on personal expenses, including trips to Las Vegas and to casinos in Virginia and North Carolina.
Ruth, who has prior felony convictions, is also accused of illegally possessing firearms.
