A surprise twist has emerged in the long-running legal battle over the $500 million fortune of Tony Hsieh, the late Zappos CEO and beloved tech visionary who died in 2020.
A mysterious will, allegedly signed by Hsieh (typically pronounced “Shay,” which rhymes with “day”) five years before his death, surfaced this spring — delivered by mail to a Nevada estate attorney who had no prior connection to the entrepreneur, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The will, dated 2015, names attorney Robert Armstrong as a co-executor of Hsieh’s estate — yet Armstrong says he never met Hsieh and had no role in his estate planning.
Armstrong was stunned to receive the document, which arrived in an unmarked envelope earlier this year, according to a court filing.
The sudden appearance of the will has thrown Hsieh’s probate case into turmoil.
Until now, his family had been operating under the assumption that he died without leaving a will. His father, Richard Hsieh, has been serving as administrator of the estate for more than three years.
“There is nothing ‘scorched earth’ about thoroughly examining a document that comes out of nowhere, more than four years after Tony Hsieh’s death,” Dara Goldsmith, a lawyer representing the family, told the Journal.
She added that Richard Hsieh “has faithfully administered his son Tony’s estate and guarded Tony’s legacy.”
The newly surfaced will reportedly includes over $50 million in assets and several Las Vegas properties, directing them into a series of trusts with unnamed beneficiaries.
It also outlines charitable donations — including a $3 million gift to Hsieh’s alma mater, Harvard University — as well as additional gifts to foundations and family members.
The remainder of the estate would still go to Hsieh’s family.
At a court hearing Thursday in Las Vegas, there was little clarity on whether the document is legitimate — or even where it came from.
The court heard that shortly after receiving the will, Armstrong received a phone call from a man identifying himself as Kashif Singh.
Singh explained that the will had come from his late grandfather, Pir Muhammad, who was named in the document as a co-executor and allegedly suffered from dementia before passing away.
The situation has left both the court and those involved in the estate uncertain on how to proceed.
Armstrong, along with fellow attorney and named co-executor Mark Ferrario, claim that the Hsieh family’s legal team has responded with overly aggressive tactics.
In a filing, they accused the family’s lawyers of adopting a “scorched earth approach” and making “more than 70 requests for documents” from their firms “in an apparent move to invalidate the Will.”
Goldsmith countered that the family has not decided whether to formally challenge the will.
“It would be premature,” she said during the hearing, adding that confirming the identities of the witnesses whose signatures appear on the will is a priority before any conclusions can be drawn.
“At the time a status conference was filed, co-executors requested this because a will had been lodged, but we didn’t know what the next procedural steps would be,” attorney Leigh Goddard, who represents Armstrong, told KTNV-TV.
“Since then, we have been, how should I say, met with some hostility from the administrator and counsel in regards to subpoenas and requests for information. We thought we were just going to discuss procedural next steps, but things have changed.”
In late May, attorneys representing Harvard University formally asked to be kept informed on all court proceedings related to the case. A lawyer for Harvard was also present at Thursday’s hearing, seated with Armstrong and Ferrario.
Tony Hsieh died in November 2020 at the age of 46 due to injuries sustained in a house fire in New London, Conn. The medical examiner ruled his death an accident.
At the time of his passing, Hsieh had stepped away from Zappos and was living a semi-reclusive life marked by erratic behavior and substance abuse, according to friends and reports.
Hsieh, who made his fortune selling Zappos to Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009, was widely admired for his unconventional approach to business and leadership.
His book “Delivering Happiness” became a bestseller, and his downtown Las Vegas investment projects drew entrepreneurs from across the country.
The Post has sought comment from the Hsieh family, Armstrong, Singh, Harvard and Ferrario.
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