John Darwin famously sought benefits by faking his own death in a canoeing accident. Jesse Kipf decided to skip the cold water and relied on what a US court has addressed as Cyber Intrusion and Aggravated Identity Theft.
The media release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky states in part
The Defendant committed cyber intrusions, by hacking into state death registry systems to fake his own death to avoid paying his child support obligations. He also hacked into private businesses and attempted to sell access to networks on the dark web
According to his plea agreement, Kipf intentionally accessed a computer without authorization and then obtained information from a protected computer for his own private gain and in furtherance of identity theft. Specifically, in January 2023, Kipf accessed the Hawaii Death Registry System, using the username and password of a physician living in another state, and created a “case” for his own death. Kipf then completed a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified his death, using the digital signature of the doctor. This resulted in Kipf being registered as a deceased person in many government databases. Kipf admitted that he faked his own death, in part, to avoid his outstanding child support obligations.
Kipf also infiltrated other states’ death registry systems, private business networks, and governmental and corporate networks using credentials he stole from real people. He then tried to sell access to these networks to potential buyers on the dark net, an overlay network within the internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations, or authorization and is commonly associated with the sale of illicit goods and services. ...
“Working in collaboration with our law enforcement partners, this defendant who hacked a variety of computer systems and maliciously stole the identity of others for his own personal gain, will now pay the price,” said Michael E. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office. “Victims of identity theft face lifelong impact and for that reason, the FBI will pursue anyone foolish enough to engage in this cowardly behavior.”
Under federal law, Kipf must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years. The damage to governmental and corporate computer systems and his failure to pay his child support obligations amounted to a total of $195,758.65.
The Darwin fraud is discussed in R v Darwin and Anor [2009] EWCA Crim 860 noted here.
