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Man Sharing Babe Ruth’s Name Charged in $550K Fraud Scheme

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jay Canale | Last updated Aug 26, 2025 9:11 AM ET

A man named George Herman Ruth is facing charges alleging he used the names of hundreds of retired or deceased professional baseball players to make fraudulent claims for payouts in class action settlements, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee said on Thursday.

Ruth, a 69-year-old Tennessee native, shares the same name as the famous baseball legend Babe Ruth. The former Yankee earned the nickname Babe when he started playing professional baseball, standing out as just a 19-year-old. The Ruth from today, however, seems to have taken the idea of a nickname too far.

Ruth is charged with mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, money laundering, making false statements to his probation officer, and possessing firearms after having previously been convicted of felonies, according to the press briefing from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the case.

This briefing went on to say that for over two years, beginning in January 2023, Ruth “devised and implemented an elaborate, nationwide scheme to submit hundreds of fraudulent claim forms to class action administrators around the country.”

This isn’t Ruth’s first attempt at fraud, either. In July 2020, Ruth was sentenced to 56 months in federal prison for defrauding the U.S. Department of the Treasury, IRS, and Social Security Administration, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.

A quote from United States Attorney Josh J. Minkler’s comments following Ruth’s 2020 sentencing turned out to be ironic, given the current circumstances.

“Mr. Ruth has tried making a career of getting something for nothing,” said Minkler. “He was not that good at it and this sentence should put an end to it.”

It seems Minkler was only partly correct in his comments, as Ruth certainly didn’t let that sentence end his attempts. Where he was right, however, is that Ruth was in fact not good at it.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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