Lexington, KY: A man from Kentucky has admitted that he faked his death to cover the child support payments that he owed to his ex-wife.
Jesse E. Kipf entered a guilty plea on March 29 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, according to a plea deal. He was charged with one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of computer fraud.
Kipf gained access to the Hawaii Death Registry System in January 2023 by using the credentials of a doctor who was residing in a different state. These credentials included the doctor’s name, title, and license number.
Using the information, the defendant “created a ‘case’ for his own death” and “assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case.” He was recorded as having passed away in many official databases.
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In the plea deal, it is said that “the defendant faked his own death, in part, to avoid his outstanding child support obligations to his ex-wife.”
According to the terms of the arrangement, Kipf was responsible for paying his ex-wife more than 116,000 dollars in child support.
As the agreement continues, it claims that “the defendant also infiltrated the death registry systems of other states, using credentials that he stole from other real people.”
Additionally, he attempted to offer access to corporate and government networks to prospective purchasers through the Internet.
Kipf caused damage to those networks that amounted to roughly $80,000, in addition to the child support that he owed to his ex-wife. According to the paperwork, he will make restitution payments to all of the people involved.
According to the records, he could be sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison and fines of up to half a million dollars. As reported by NBC News, the sentencing hearing for Kipf is scheduled to take place on April 12th.