Kentucky man who faked death to avoid paying child support is sentenced to over 6 years in prison

From NBC News:

A Kentucky man who hacked into state death registry systems to fake his own death in a bid to avoid paying over $100,000 in outstanding child support has been sentenced to over six years in prison, prosecutors announced Tuesday. 

Jesse Kipf, 39, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky in a plea agreement on charges of computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. 

In January 2023, Kipf accessed the Hawaii death registry system using the information of a physician living in another state and created a case for his own death, prosecutors said in a news release. 

He completed a Hawaii death certificate worksheet, assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified his death using the doctor’s digital signature — resulting in his being registered as a deceased person in many government databases, the release said.

Officials said he admitted to faking his own death in part “to avoid outstanding child support obligations.”

He owed more than $116,000, according to the sentencing memorandum.

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