70 year old George Herman Ruth of Morristown, was sentenced to 132 months’ imprisonment by the Honorable Clifton Corker, United States District Judge, in the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville.
Wednesday’s sentencing followed Ruth’s prior entry of a guilty plea to twenty-five separate counts of mail fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud class action administrators throughout the country. Following Ruth’s imprisonment, he will be on federal supervised release for three years.
According to filed court documents and statements made in court, Ruth was previously sentenced to prison for 56-months for Conspiracy to Defraud the United States Social Security Administrator, and Conspiracy to Defraud the United States Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, in the Southern District of Indiana. Upon his release from imprisonment, in October of 2023, Ruth began serving a term of federal supervised release in the Eastern District of Tennessee that required him to submit truthful monthly reports to his supervising probation officer.
From at least January 2023 and continuing through at least July of 2025, Ruth engaged in a large-scale scheme to deceive class action administrators and to enrich himself through fraud. Ruth identified class action lawsuit settlements and submitted hundreds of fraudulent claim forms to different class action administrators in which he purported to be entitled to relief under the terms of the relevant class action lawsuit. Ruth predominately used the names of former Major League Baseball players to submit false claims. To facilitate his fraud, Ruth opened post office boxes throughout northeast Tennessee to receive mail from class action administrators and opened a bank account in the name a sham business called “El Mundo Marketing” to deposit fraudulent received payments from class action administrators. Ruth used proceeds from the fraud scheme to travel, to gamble, and to continue the scam. Ruth admitted that he attempted to obtain more than $250,000 through his fraud scheme.
Ruth repeatedly submitted false monthly supervision reports to his probation officer to facilitate his mail fraud scheme. For example, Ruth falsely reported on numerous monthly supervision reports that he did not have access to a post office box when, in truth, Ruth had thirteen separate post office boxes that he used to advance his mail fraud scheme. Additionally, Ruth falsely reported on monthly supervision reports that he did not travel out-of-state when, in fact, Ruth regularly traveled out-of-state without permission.
“George Herman Ruth’s conviction exemplifies the unwavering commitment of the United States Attorney’s Office to investigate and prosecute individuals who commit fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee. “The eleven-year prison sentence imposed today reflects the seriousness of Ruth’s actions and will hopefully deter others from running schemes to defraud in the Eastern District of Tennessee.”
“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has been at the forefront of protecting consumers from fraud schemes for many years,” said Inspector in Rodney M. Hopkins of the United States Postal Inspection Service’s Atlanta Division. “Anyone who engages in deceptive practices like this should know they will not go undetected and will be held accountable, regardless of where they are.”
This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General, and the Morristown Police Department.
Assistant United States Attorneys Ryan Blackwell, Christian Lampe, Mac Heavener, and Wayne Taylor represented the United States.
