Hacker dad who faked death to avoid child support sentenced to prison

Enlarge (credit: MikeCherim | E+)

A Kentucky man has been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison after hacking into state registries to fake his own death, in hopes of avoiding about $116,000 in child support payments.

In a press release, the US Attorney’s Office wrote that Jesse Kipf, 39, was sentenced for charges including computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. On top of hacking state death registries in Arizona, Hawaii, and Vermont, Kipf also “hacked into private businesses and attempted to sell access to networks on the dark web” and stole identities of real people to open two credit accounts.

Now, Kipf has agreed to pay $195,758.65 in damages, including the child support owed to his ex-wife and nearly $80,000 to repair damage to the state death registries.