A man from Kentucky was convicted of trying to breach the state of Hawaii’s personal records database as part of a scheme to fake his own death with the aim of avoiding child support payments.
Allow us some time to unpack that last sentence.
A man named Jesse Kipf was convicted in court on counts of computer fraud and identity theft. He faces a maximum of 81 months in prison. Under federal law he will be required to serve at least 68 months behind bars.
According to the plea deal Kipf signed, he illegally gained access to the records database of Hawaii in January 2023 using logins stolen from state employees and attempted to create a death certificate for himself once he had administrator access to the database.
One possible tip for investigators was that the official signing off on Jesse Kipf’s death certificate was named “Jesse Kipf.”
From there, investigators traced out a scheme in which Kipf tried to convince the government that he was legally dead by using stolen credentials from actual officials with the aim of creating falsified records across multiple states.
On the way, prosecutors said that Kipf tried to turn a tidy profit from his scheme by offering the stolen credentials up for sale on the dark web after he used them to fake his own death.
The story would be funnier but for a rather unpleasant twist: Kipf’s caper was part of an effort to avoid obligations to a child. Authorities said that the convicted owes roughly $195,000 in overdue child support and the death scheme would have shielded him from making any of those payments.
“This scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations,” said U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier, IV.
“This case is a stark reminder of how damaging criminals with computers can be, and how critically important computer and online security is to us all. Fortunately, through the excellent work of our law enforcement partners, this case will serve as a warning to other cyber criminals, and he will face the consequences of his disgraceful conduct.”
In case any of you divorced dads out there are having a bad day, just know that you haven’t tried to breach your state government’s internal network in order to skirt a six-figure obligation to your own child. That should make the drive to soccer practice a little easier.
