Mystery will surfaces in battle over tech mogul's $500million fortune
A mysterious will said to be the final wishes of Zappos founder Tony Hsieh has emerged five years after his death.
The tech giant, worth over $500 million, died after a fire engulfed his friend's Connecticut home in 2020, having only retired three-months earlier from the billion-dollar firm.
His family had until recently believed he left no final will, with a new report from the Wall Street Journal saying the document mysteriously appeared this spring.
According to the outlet the document has Hsieh's signature on it and is dated 2015, five years before the 46-year-old died. In the months leading up to his death he had been battling severe drug and alcohol abuse.
The will was delivered to the office of Nevada based estate attorney Robert Armstrong, who had never met Hsieh before or worked with him. He was named as an executor.
The discovery has thrown his probate case into turmoil. Armstrong said in court filing seen by the outlet, that he was shocked to have received the document.
The will is said to transfer over $50 million and several Las Vegas properties to a series of trusts with as yet unknown beneficiaries.
It is also said to include several charitable donations including $3 million to his alma mater Harvard University. The rest would go to his family.
Hsieh was inside a shed near the property in New London when he was caught in the fire
At a hearing on Thursday there was no further clues as to how legitimate the document is, or where it came from.
The court heard that after Armstrong received the will he got a phone call from a man named Kashif Singh.
Singh told the lawyer that the will had been passed to him by his late grandfather, Pir Muhammad, who was named as a co-executor.
The revelation has stumped those involved in Hsieh's estate and the court, with both sides unsure how to proceed.
Armstrong, alongside attorney and co-executor Mark Ferrario, have claimed that Hsieh's family's legal team have been aggressive in their approach.
In a filing, they said the family's lawyers had adopted a 'scorched earth approach' and made over 70 requests for documents to 'invalidate the will'.
Dara Goldsmith, a lawyer representing the family, told the Journal: 'There is nothing 'scorched earth' about thoroughly examining a document that comes out of nowhere, more than four years after Tony Hsieh's death.'
She added that Richard Hsieh, his father, 'has faithfully administered his son Tony's estate and guarded Tony's legacy.'
Goldsmith told the court on Thursday that the family hadn't decided on whether to challenge the will.
Prior to his death, Hsieh had gone on a massive buying spree, buying up at least seven multi-millionaire dollars homes, a private club and a vacant lot.
He spent at least $50 million as part of his plan to relocate to the millionaires' playground of Park City, Utah.
Hsieh, who was born in Illinois and was the son of Taiwanese immigrants, studied at Harvard University before he joined Zappos - then called ShoeSite.com - in 1999.
As CEO, he helped transform the fledgling internet start-up into a billion-dollar business.
Zappos was sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009, but Hsieh remained with the company until his retirement in 2020.
For years, Hsieh also worked to revitalize downtown Las Vegas, pledging $350 million in 2013 for redevelopment.
The same year he moved Zappos' headquarters into the former Las Vegas City Hall building.
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