A Kentucky man is facing several years behind bars for illegally accessing the online death registry system and faking his own death to avoid having to pay over $100,000 in child support to his ex-partner.

39-year-old Jesse Kipf admitted to accessing the death registry system in Hawaii using login details he had stolen from a doctor in the same state in January of last year. According to investigators, he created and assigned a file to himself in the system and impersonated the doctor to certify that he had died. Court documents show that Kipf also admitted to illegally accessing various websites run by the States of Arizona and Vermont, along with GuestTek Interactive Entertainment and Milestone, Inc., which led to him being listed as dead in several government databases. In a plea agreement, the defendant claimed that he committed these crimes, in part, to avoid paying outstanding child support to his former wife.

Photo: Grayson County Detention Center

“He completed a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, and then, on January 21, 2023, the Defendant assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified that case,” the plea agreement read. “He applied a digital signature for [the physician], providing his name, title, and license number. This resulted in the Defendant being registered as deceased in many government databases.”

To make matters worse, Jesse Kipf admitted to hacking into private business, governmental, and corporate networks using credentials stolen from other people, and attempted to sell access to the networks to online buyers. On March 29, the 39-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Photo: Gustavo Gandia Rivera/Unsplash

According to the plea agreement, Kipf must pay back the parties he defrauded through his actions, including $116,000 in child support to his ex-wife, and $79,000 to the government and corporate networks he illegally accessed. Furthermore, the plea deal comes with a maximum prison sentence of seven years, as well as $500,000 in fines.