A Kentucky father admitted to faking his own death to avoid paying more than $100,000 in outstanding child support.
Jesse Kipf, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of computer fraud on March 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
The plea agreement said Kipf accessed Hawaii’s death registration system in January 2023 and created a false death certificate using the personal information of an out-of-state doctor.
Kipf was then listed as deceased in multiple government databases after he “assigned himself as a medical certifier” and certified his own case.
The plea agreement revealed that Kipf faked his death in other states and stole other identities “to avoid his outstanding child support obligations to his ex-wife.”
Jesse Kipf, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of computer fraud on March 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
The plea agreement said Kipf faked his death in other states and stole other identities “to avoid his outstanding child support obligations to his ex-wife.”
It is unclear how old his son is and how many years he has not paid child support.
According to the plea agreement, Kipf “also infiltrated private business networks, using credentials he stole from other real people.”
He then went on to sell access to private trading networks to online buyers, according to the agreement.
Kipf not only stole the identities of several people, but also damaged numerous corporate and government computer networks, causing more than $79,000 in damages.
The posing doctor, who has been identified as ‘CN’, also suffered damages totaling more than $116,000.
Under the settlement, Kipf agreed to pay all parties for their wrongdoing, for a total amount of more than $195,000.
He was initially indicted by the federal grand jury in November 2023 on five counts of computer fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of making false statements on applications, according to a report. Press release.
While committing the crimes, Kipf ‘illegally accessed’ multiple websites, including state websites in Arizona, Hawaii, Vermont and two hotel technology companies, GuestTek Interactive Entertainment, Ltd. and Milestone Inc, according to the statement.
Although both companies are suppliers to large hotel chains, “investigators have no evidence that the hotel customer’s personally identifiable information was compromised” following Kipf’s crimes, according to the statement.
A search warrant reviewed by Forbes said Kipf sold personal data of Marriott hotel guests “on a Russian forum.”
According to his plea agreement, Kipf accessed Hawaii’s death registration system in January 2023 and created a false death certificate using the personal information of an out-of-state doctor.
Investigators claimed that after Kipf obtained the information, he sold it to Exploit.in, an online forum based in Russia.
Marriott spokesperson Liza Ravenscroft told Forbes that when Kipf hacked the hotel company, “there was no impact on customer data.”
DailyMail.com has contacted GuestTek and Milestone for comment.
He was accused of making false statements to open credit accounts in 2020 and 2023 because he used a false Social Security number, according to the indictment.
Under his plea agreement, Kipf faces a maximum of seven years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.
His initial charges carried a sentence of more than 30 years behind bars.
Five of the seven years are related to his aggravated identity charges and the other two are for his computer fraud charges.
DailyMail.com has contacted his lawyer, Thomas Miceli, for comment.
Kipf’s next appearance in federal court is scheduled for April 12 in Frankfort, Kentucky.