A 30-year-old from Kentucky who wanted to avoid paying child support to his ex at all costs has been accused of faking his own death by infiltrating the death registration systems of several US states.
“The defendant faked his own death, in part, to avoid his support obligations to his ex-wife,” noted the plea agreement entered on March 29, according to NBC News on Sunday.
After going out of his way to avoid paying $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife, defendant Jesse E. Kipf, 39, now faces seven years in prison and a fine fined $500,000 for faking his own death.
The Kentucky man, who reportedly pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and computer fraud, was accused of infiltrating Hawaii state death records in January 2023 using a doctor’s information from another state, to create a record of his own death in several government databases.
“(He) appointed himself as the medical certifier of the case and certified this case,” the court document continued, according to NBC News.
Then, he allegedly repeated the gesture in other states’ death registration systems, using identifications “stolen from other real people,” after hacking into private company and government networks.
He then attempted to sell access to these networks to online buyers, the court document alleged.
According to the plea agreement, the defendant allegedly agreed to make restitution of $195,000 in estimated damages, which include $79,000 in losses for the various hacked networks and $116,000 in losses experienced by his ex-wife, although the final fine could be much more significant.
The charges initially filed against him, including numerous counts of aggravated identity theft, computer fraud and false declarations, could have earned him a prison sentence of more than 30 years, according to the American media.
The accused should receive his sentence on April 12, according to NBC News.
