A Kentucky man has been sent to prison after he broke into a state computer system in order to fake his own death so he would not have to pay child support.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), who prosecuted 39-year-old Jesse Kipf of Somerset, Kentucky, said he was sentenced to 81 months in prison on August 19. The charges were computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Kipf was a prolific hacker, breaking into state record systems in Vermont, Hawaii, and Arizona. He also got into the databases of private companies GuestTek Interactive Entertainment (they sell internet access to hotel guests) and Milestone, Inc., a company that sells marketing services.
It all started the first month of 2023, when Kipf was stuck owing his ex-wife $116,000 in back child support. Instead of paying to feed and maintain his family, Kipf somehow got ahold of the digital credentials of a physician, which he used to log into the Hawaii Death Registry system. Once there, he created a fake digital paper trail showing that he was dead.
Most states have moved to all-electronic filing and record keeping for vital statistics such as birth and death certificates. Anyone who gets into one of these systems undetected can change the official record of who they are, and rewrite history to make it seem like they no longer exist above ground.
That’s exactly what Kipf did. He posed as the doctor whose identity he stole and completed a death certificate that he then used to mark himself deceased in numerous government computer record systems. Prosecutors also say he tried to sell access to these systems on the dark web, parts of the internet people visit to buy and sell illegal materials.
Faking his own death was not enough for Kipf, though; he wanted to enjoy a high quality life after his “death.” He got his hands on fake but realistic-enough Social Security numbers and opened numerous credit card accounts.
Kipf pleaded guilty to the charges and must spend at least 85 percent of his sentence behind bars.
Prosecutors say this victory should be a warning to other digital thieves that they will not get away with it. The DOJ said the total damage done combining his back child support with problems he introduced in government computer systems amount to almost $200,000.
