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Today in dumb criminal news, we have a man from Kentucky who faked his own death in an attempt to avoid having to pay child support.
The man, Jesse Kipf, 39, of Somerset, Kentucky, was divorced in 2008 and thanks to his scheme, had managed to avoid paying over $100,000 in child support before being caught.
The scheme involved hacking into the Hawaii Death Registry System in January 2023 with a username and password belonging to a physician in another state, then created and certified a fake death certificate in his name.
Not satisfied with just declaring himself dead, Kipf hacked into other states’ death registry systems as well as private business networks and governmental and corporate networks “using credentials stolen from real people.” Then he attempted, and succeeded in some cases, to sell identity information to international buyers from Algeria, Russia and Ukraine, including Social Security numbers and medical records and access to those networks on the dark web.
“This scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations,” Carlton Shier, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said in a statement.
“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.
“Fortunately, through the excellent work of our law enforcement partners, this case will serve as a warning to other cybercriminals, and he will face the consequences of his disgraceful conduct.”
A Kentucky man could find himself spending years behind bars after he faked his own death to avoid paying his ex-wife child support.https://t.co/5vR2VmfYQX pic.twitter.com/JfbzziRwrN
— Local 12/WKRC-TV (@Local12) April 7, 2024
Kipf entered a plea agreement in March in which he admitted owing his ex-wife more than $116,000 in back child support.
He was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison on Monday for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. He will also have to pay more than $195,000 in restitution for damages he caused to governmental and corporate computer systems.
According to federal law, he must serve at least 85% of his prison sentence, and upon his release he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.