A man from Kentucky who pretended to die by illegally accessing a death registry in order to avoid paying child support has been sentenced to more than 6 years in prison, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Kentucky. Jesse Kipf used the login information of a doctor from another state to access the Hawaii death registry system in January 2023 and create a fake death record for himself.
He then used the doctor’s digital signature to certify his own death, resulting in his false registration as deceased in various government databases. Kipf confessed that he faked his own death partly to evade his outstanding child support responsibilities.
His lawyer, Tommy Miceli, stated, “We accept the court’s decision.”
In addition to this scheme, Kipf also illegally accessed death registry systems and private business networks in other states using stolen credentials and attempted to sell access to these networks on the dark web. Kipf was sentenced to 81 months in prison and is required to serve at least 85% of his sentence under federal law.
Upon release, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Carlton S. Shier, IV, commented, “This scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations.
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.”
