Death register hacked: Family father fakes his death to demand maintenance payments

Man hacks into American death registry and fakes his death.

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A man from the USA illegally hacked into the state death registry in order to fake his death. He wanted to avoid paying child support. Now he has to go to prison for a long time.

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• Man in the USA hacked into the state death registry and created his death certificate.
• He wanted to avoid high maintenance arrears.
• The man now faces a long prison sentence.

A man from Kentucky appeared in court very much alive, even though the 39-year-old should officially be dead. According to prosecutors, the defendant had illegally hacked into the state death registry in order to fake his own death.

According to the New York Times, in January 2023, 39-year-old Jesse K. hacked into Hawaii's death registry system using the username and password of a doctor living in another state to create and notarize his own death certificate.

Death only faked

“This resulted in K. being registered as deceased in many state databases,” the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky stated. “K. has admitted that he faked his own death, in part to evade his outstanding child support obligations.”

Jesse K. was born in Hawaii and divorced in California in 2008. He owed his daughter and her mother more than $116,000 (about 99,000 Swiss francs) in child support.

He has now been sentenced to 81 months in prison.