Kentucky man confesses to faking his own death to avoid paying child support

A Kentucky man who faked his own death to get out of paying around $10,000 in child support to his ex-wife now owes her over ten times that amount, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars he must pay to the government agencies he hacked into to commit the crime. 

Jesse Kipf, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of both computer fraud and identity theft on March 29, and is set to be sentenced on April 12. He could face up to seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines, in addition to the aforementioned amounts. 

According to a plea agreement, Kipf accessed the Hawaii Death Registry System on January 20, 2023, using the username and password of a doctor living in another state, identified as CK. 

Kipf then created a case for his own death, completed the relevant paperwork, and "assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified that case," forging CK's signature digitally. 

As a result, he was listed as deceased in the database. 

Kipf went on to infiltrate other states' death registry systems using usernames and passwords stolen from other real people and attempted to sell access to others via the internet. 

The plea agreement confirmed that Kipf "faked his own death, in part, in order to avoid his outstanding child support obligations to his ex-wife," identified as CN.  
 
Kipf "caused damage to multiple computer networks and stole identities of numerous individuals," it stated. "Between the damage caused to the governmental and corporate networks ... (amounting to $79,400.88) and the loss suffered by CN (amounting to $116,357.77)." 
 
He was originally charged with five counts of computer fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft, and two counts of making false statements on applications in connection with federally insured financial institutions.