Family of late Zappos CEO alleges mysterious will is a "scam"

The household of the precocious Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh claims a mysterious volition that surfaced this twelvemonth for the executive's $500 cardinal luck is simply a "sham" and is asking a tribunal to invalidate the document.

The conflict implicit the volition comes 5 years aft Hseih's death astatine property 46 from complications owed to fume inhalation from a location fire. After his death, which was ruled accidental, his household said Hsieh had died without leaving a will. 

Earlier this year, however, a antheral purportedly named Kashif Singh claimed helium had recovered Hsieh's volition among his precocious grandfather's possessions. Singh claimed that his grandfather, Pir Muhammad, and Hsieh were "dear friends," though there's nary grounds that the 2 knew each other, according to the Dec. 15 court filing, published by Las Vegas' KSNV-TV.

Attorneys for Hsieh's household didn't instantly respond to a petition for comment.

Hsieh, a Harvard University graduate, joined Zappos— past called ShoeSite.com — successful 1999. Zappos was sold to Amazon for $1.2 cardinal successful 2009, and Hsieh remained with the e-commerce institution until helium retired successful 2020.

Reasons for suspicion

The tribunal filing asks that the volition beryllium ruled a forgery, citing grounds that Hsieh's expected signature is fake and that helium had nary known transportation to Muhammad. According to the family's lawsuit, the volition nominates 2 attorneys, who allegedly did not cognize Hsieh, to service arsenic his co-executors and oversee his estate. 

"Scams travel successful each shapes and sizes," the Hsieh family's suit alleges. "In this case, the scam is successful the signifier of a papers being touted arsenic the purported volition of Anthony 'Tony' Hsieh."

It added, "The papers was allegedly recovered by a implicit stranger, galore years aft Tony's death, successful the possession of the stranger's deceased grandfather, Pir Muhammad, a 91-year-old Pakistani antheral with nary known ties to Tony."

The filing besides notes that the papers includes misspellings of Hsieh's name.

The Hsieh household hired an adept successful detecting counterfeits to analyse Hsieh's purported signatures connected the will, the filing notes. The adept concluded determination were "numerous unexplained differences" compared with Hsieh's known handwriting, starring him to reason the volition was forged.

Hsieh's household besides claims that there's nary grounds the businessman attended the will's signing, which supposedly occurred successful March 2015, fixed that nary of his calendars, emails and different documentation noted specified an event. 

It besides claims that the 5 radical who allegedly witnessed Hsieh signing the volition cannot beryllium located, and that "their interaction accusation has been fabricated, and likely, they bash not beryllium successful existent life."

Edited by Alain Sherter