A Kentucky man has been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison after hacking into state registries to fake his own death, in hopes of avoiding about $116,000 in child support payments.
In a press release, the US Attorney’s Office wrote that Jesse Kipf, 39, was sentenced for charges including computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. On top of hacking state death registries in Arizona, Hawaii, and Vermont, Kipf also “hacked into private businesses and attempted to sell access to networks on the dark web” and stole identities of real people to open two credit accounts.
Now, Kipf has agreed to pay $195,758.65 in damages, including the child support owed to his ex-wife and nearly $80,000 to repair damage to the state death registries.
Carlton S. Shier IV, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said that Kipf’s “scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations.”
It’s unclear how the scheme was discovered, but it was launched in January 2023 when Kipf used “the username and password of a physician living in another state” to access the Hawaii Death Registry System and created a “case” for his fake death, the US Attorney’s Office said.
He then “assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified his death, using the digital signature of the doctor,” the press release said.
After that, Kipf was registered as “a deceased person in many government databases,” the US Attorney’s office said, but he didn’t stop there. He furthered his scheme for months, hacking into registries in Arizona and Vermont, as well as “private business networks and governmental and corporate networks,” using “credentials he stole from real people.”
It appeared that Kipf’s goal in hacking two businesses that provide services for hotels—Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd. And Milestone, Inc.—was to steal more data to sell on the dark web. But although these companies provide services including “the use of the Internet during hotel stays or use of hotel websites,” the US Attorney’s Office found “no evidence that Kipf accessed the personally identifying information of hotel customers.”
Kipf admitted that his scheme was intended to dodge child support payments after investigators seized his devices—including memory cards, external hard drives, and an HP laptop—and found evidence that he had researched whether faking his death would cancel his obligation. His search history showed searches for “California child support arrears father died” and “remove California child support for deceased,” The Washington Post reported.
But investigators also found evidence of other money-making schemes on his devices, including databases with Social Security numbers and medical records, “which he sold ‘to international buyers, including individuals from Algeria, Russia, and Ukraine,'” NBC News reported. Additionally, Kipf “obtained a fake Social Security number to continue living his life under a new identity,” the Post reported.
These other parts of his scheme led to “untold consequences in trying to rectify the networks and the harm to the individuals whose personally identifying information was exposed, stolen, or misused,” prosecutors argued ahead of sentencing. And “by attempting to kill himself off to avoid child support obligations,” Kipf “continues to re-victimize his daughter and her mother,” prosecutors argued.
Shier said in the press release that Kipf’s sentencing would hopefully discourage others from attempting similar schemes.
“This case is a stark reminder of how damaging criminals with computers can be and how critically important computer and online security is to us all,” Shier said. “Fortunately, through the excellent work of our law enforcement partners, this case will serve as a warning to other cyber criminals, and he will face the consequences of his disgraceful conduct.”
Kipf’s attorney, Thomas Miceli, told the Post that he and Kipf “respect the court’s decision.”
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