Father faked his own death by hacking into death registry system to avoid paying more than $100,000 in outstanding child support to his ex-wife

A Kentucky father has 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 registry system in January 2023 and created a fake death certificate by using an out-of-state doctor's personal information. 

Kipf was then listed as deceased in multiple government databases after he 'assigned himself as the medical certifier' and certified his own case. 

The plea agreement revealed that Kipf faked his death in other states and stole other identities 'in order 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 that Kipf faked his death in other states and stole other identities 'in order to avoid his outstanding child support obligations to his ex-wife' 

It is unclear how old his child is and how many years he failed to pay 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 the private business networks to buyers online, the agreement said. 

Kipf not only stole the identities of multiple people, but also harmed numerous corporate and government computer networks resulting in more than $79,000 in damages.

The doctor that he pretended to be, who has been identified as 'C.N.', also suffered damages that totaled to more than $116,000. 

According to the agreement, Kipf has agreed to pay all the parties for his wrongdoings, for a total amount of more than $195,000. 

He was initially indicted in November 2023 by the federal grand jury on five counts of computer fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft, and two counts of making false statements on applications, according to a news release. 

As he committed the crimes, Kipf 'illegally accessed' multiple websites, including state websites in Arizona, Hawaii, Vermont, and two hospitality technology companies, GuestTek Interactive Entertainment, Ltd., and Milestone Inc, the release said. 

Although both companies are vendors of large hotel chains, 'investigators have no evidence that hotel customer's personal identifying information was compromised' following Kipf's crimes, the release said. 

A search warrant reviewed by Forbes said that Kipf did sell personal data of Marriott hotel customers 'on a Russian forum.' 

According to his plea agreement, Kipf accessed Hawaii 's death registry system in January 2023, and created a fake death certificate by using an out of state doctor's personal information

Investigators claimed that after Kipf obtained the information, he then sold it to Exploit.in, a Russian-based online forum. 

Liza Ravenscroft, a spokesperson for Marriott, told Forbes that when Kipf hacked the hotel company, 'there was no impact to customer data.' 

DailyMail.com contacted GuestTek and Milestone for comment. 

He was indicted for making false statements in order to open credit accounts in 2020 and 2023, as he used a false social security number, the indictment said. 

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 contacted his lawyer, Thomas Miceli, for comment. 

Kipf's next federal court appearance is scheduled for April 12 in Frankfort, Kentucky.