The family of a tech tycoon is on the hunt for a ‘mystery will’ as a battle for the $500 million estate looms.
Tony Hsieh was an American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist who had retired as CEO of online clothing firm Zappos in 2020.
Prior to spending 21 years there, he had previously co-found LinkExchange which he later sold to Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million.
But tragedy struck in November 2020 when the mogul was injured in a house fire.
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It was reported that Hsieh was visiting family in Connecticut for Thanksgiving when he either began stuck in the pool shed or barricaded himself in during the fire.
He was later rescued and taken to Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital but died nine days later at the age of 46.
His death was ruled as accidental and it was determined by a medical examiner that Hsieh had passed away from smoke inhalation.
Since then, his family have been left shocked to discover the revelation of a mysterious will, although the source of it is yet to have been uncovered.
It was mailed to a courthouse in Las Vegas earlier this year and surprisingly names Robert Armstrong, who is an estate planner who had never met Hsieh, as the executor of the estate.
Armstrong, along with attorney Mark Ferrario, have now been named special administrators of the estate by a Las Vegas judge.
Prior to this, Hsieh’s father, Richard Hsieh, had been managing the estate.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, lawyers for the family are struggling to find any information about the witnesses who signed the will, as well as other people who are named in the document.
The attorneys discovered that the will and a related letter were both sent to the courthouse from two different locations, with one coming from Connecticut and the other being sent from Pennslyvania.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the mystery will also includes a clause that states if any of the family members oppose Hsieh’s wishes, then all of them will receive nothing.
Overseeing the case, Judge Gloria Sturman remarked that she is finding the case to be ‘odd’.
Although, she added: “But it doesn’t mean [the will is] not valid. It’s just odd.”
Sturman went on to confirm that she will not remove Hsieh’s father as the estate’s administrator ‘just given this very odd circumstance we find ourselves in’.