Hacker tried to dodge child support by breaking into registry to fake his death, prosecutors say

LONDON, Ky. -- A Kentucky man attempted to fake his death to avoid paying child support obligations by hacking into state registries and falsifying official records, federal prosecutors said.

Jesse Kipf, 39, of Somerset, was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison after reaching a plea agreement where he admitted going to great lengths to avoid child support payments.

Kipf's scheme began in January 2023 when he accessed Hawaii's death registry system by using the username and password of a doctor living in another state, according to a media release from Carlton Shier, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Once inside the system, Kipf created a case for his own death and completed a worksheet for a death certificate in that state, the federal prosecutor said.

The filing resulted in Kipf being registered as a deceased person in several government databases, the release said. Kipf also accessed other state registry systems and private networks using credentials taken from real people, and attempted to sell the access on the dark web, prosecutors said.

“Kipf admitted that he faked his own death, in part, to avoid his outstanding child support obligations,” prosecutors said.

Kipf was arrested in November and pleaded guilty in April to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and computer fraud. He was sentenced in U.S. District Court in London on Monday.

Kipf divorced in 2008 and he was deployed to Iraq for nearly a year between 2007 and 2008, according to court records.

He must pay more than $195,000 in restitution for damage to computer systems and the remaining total of his child support, the government said.