A Kentucky man pleaded guilty to charges connected to faking his own death, in part in an attempt to avoid paying over US$100,000 (RM475,050) in outstanding child support payments to his ex-wife.
NBC News reported that Jesse E. Kipf, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of computer fraud, after he accessed the Hawaii death registry system using the credentials of a doctor living in another state. He then created a case for his own death, which led to him being listed as deceased in several government databases.
According to the plea agreement, Kipf also “infiltrated other states’ death registry systems using credentials he stole from other real people”, and that part of his motivation was to avoid making child support payments.
Kipf also admitted to hacking into private and corporate networks, as well as government systems, using stolen information. According to court documents, he then attempted to sell access to those networks to online buyers.
NBC News reports that Kipf caused an estimated US$195,000 (RM926,347) in damages, including over US$79,000 (RM375,289) in losses to those networks, in addition to the US$116,000 (RM551,058) in losses to his ex-wife.
He was also indicted on two counts of making false statements on applications, in connection with attempts to open two credit accounts with false Social Security numbers.
The charges came with a prison sentence of over 30 years, but by accepting the plea deal, Kipf faces a maximum of seven years in prison, and up to US$500,000 (RM2.37mil) in fines, according to court records. His sentencing hearing will be held on April 12. – pennlive.com/Tribune News Service