Jesse Kipf died in January 2023, according to official records issued by the state of Hawaii, where he was born. However, federal agents discovered that Kipf was actually living in Kentucky after he hacked into government databases and manipulated them to avoid paying a six-figure child support debt.
The hacker changed his identity and did not pay child support
Kipf stole the credentials of a doctor from another state to gain access to Hawaii’s death registration system and create and certify his own death certificate, the Washington Post reports. The man then created a new identity and continued selling private information stolen from the system to “international buyers, including people from Algeria, Russia and Ukraine,” prosecutors said.
However, the hacker’s elaborate plan failed. Kipf, 39, was sentenced in Kentucky to six years and nine months in prison for computer fraud and identity theft. Kipf, who now lives in Somerset, Kentucky, must also pay nearly $200,000 (approximately PLN 770,000) in child support debts and compensation for damage caused to the computer systems he hacked.
Kipf’s attorney, Thomas Miceli, told The Washington Post that he and Kipf “respect the court’s decision.” The attorney wrote in a memo to the court that the man served on active duty in the U.S. Army from June 2006 to May 2009, including in Iraq from June 2007 to May 2008. He divorced his wife — the mother of his daughter — in 2008 after about two years of marriage. The attorney stressed that Kipf suffered “psychological trauma” during his military service, which “led to an increase in reckless and criminal behavior.”
