- Tony Hsieh left behind hundreds of millions of dollars after his accidental death caused by a house fire in 2020. But after years of his family, friends, and colleagues battling over his fortune in court, it looks like an original will, signed by Hsieh and five witnesses in 2015, has been discovered.
Tony Hsieh, cofounder and CEO of the shoe and clothing retailer Zappos, died in a house fire in New London, Conn., in 2020. While he struggled with substance abuse, medical examiners ruled his death an accident. Hsieh was just 46 years old.
Since then, Hsieh’s inner circle has spent years fighting in court over his estate, which was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of his fortune came from Hsieh’s 2009 sale of Zappos to Amazon for $1.2 billion, and Hsieh had apparently left sticky notes all over his Park City, Utah, home, promising millions to friends and former colleagues.
But in a surprise twist, it seems as though an original will—signed by Hsieh and five witnesses, dated March 13, 2015—has been discovered.
According to a filing from the Clark Country District Court in Nevada, the document was found in February in the personal belongings of a man who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, named Pir Muhammad. It’s not clear how Muhammad and Hsieh knew each other, but the court filing says Muhammad (who did not know Hsieh had died) was given “exclusive possession” of the original will to prevent any tampering. Muhammad was also one of the five witnesses who signed the will; another witness, named Ishrat Daud, told the Wall Street Journal he indeed acted as a witness “a number of years ago” but had nothing more to say on the matter.
The recent court filing also mentioned a video recording was made, but it’s unclear if the video was also found, and what’s even featured on the video. The next scheduled hearing for this case, on May 22, may shed more light on the matter.
As for the will itself, Hsieh left $3 million to Harvard University, his alma mater; $500,000 each to Unicef and the American Red Cross; $250,000 each to the Buffett Foundation, Americares Foundation, and the Gates Foundation; $1 million to his trustee, Muzammal Hussain, and STRYV365, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young people navigate and deal with trauma; and $500,000 each to his mother, Judy, father Richard, and brothers Andrew and David.
The will also reportedly includes a no-contest clause that says if any of his four remaining family members fight Hsieh’s wishes, none of them will receive any of his gifts.
“I have structured my way of surprising and leaving essentially all my beneficiaries to experience the ‘WOW’ factor in their life,” the purported will says. “I want my beneficiaries to ‘live in the wow.’”