Man sentenced for faking death to avoid $100K child support

A man from Kentucky didn’t want to pay more than $100,000 in child support so he hacked into a death registry and faked his own death. Now Jesse Kipf will be serving more than six years behind bars.

Federal prosecutors said Kipf got into the Hawaii Death Registry System in January 2023, and used a doctor’s username and password to create and certify a death certificate.

The death registry filtered into other government databases which then also showed Kipf, who was born in Hawaii, as dead.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky said Kipf did it “in part, to avoid his outstanding child support obligations.”

Kipf had divorced his spouse in 2008 in California and owed more than $116,000 in child support to his daughter and her mother, court documents stated, according to The New York Times.

Prosecutors did not say how they were told about what Kipf had done, but during the investigation, searches on his laptop turned up that included “California child support arrears father died” and “Remove California child support for deceased.”

Kipf also got a Social Security number that hadn’t been issued and used it as his real number was connected to his death registry.

Additionally, prosecutors said he got into other state death registries, private business networks, government networks and corporate networks using stolen credentials and tried to sell the information on the dark web, the Times reported.

He said he had databases of personal information including Social Security numbers and medical records that he sold to buyers in Algeria, Russia and Ukraine, NBC News reported.

His accessing of the systems also cost nearly $80,000 to fix and “untold consequences in trying to rectify the networks and the harm to the individuals whose personally identifying information was exposed, stolen or misused,” court records said, according to NBC News.

Kipf pleaded guilty under an agreement with prosecutors to a count of computer fraud and a count of identity theft. Other charges were dropped as part of the deal.

A judge sentenced Kipf to 81 months, or six and three-quarters years behind bars. He also was ordered to pay $195,758.65 for the back child support and damages related to the computer hacking, the Times said.

Prosecutors had asked for 84 months, or seven years, because he had a prior criminal history. He was convicted in 2010 on various charges including criminal possession of four or more financial transaction devices. He was sentenced to three to five years in prison in that case. He also has other charges filed against him in a different case where he is accused of using stolen credit cards to pay for food on delivery apps.

His attorney, who asked for 72 months, or six years, behind bars, said his client was a military veteran who served in the Iraq War and was “generally discharged under honorable conditions” but was addicted to drugs that “led to an increase in reckless and criminal behavior.”

Attorney Tommy Miceli, however, said “We respect the court’s decision” about the sentence, the Times reported.

Kipf has to serve 85% of the sentence and once released he will be on probation for three years, NBC News reported.

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