A Las Vegas judge has postponed a decision on whether to admit the late tech mogul Tony Hsieh’s will to probate, raising a host of questions about the recently surfaced document.
Judge Carolyn Ellsworth continued the hearing regarding the will’s admission, indicating that it will be pushed back for several months as other related matters are addressed in the case.
“There are quite a few questions in my mind, remaining, that should be … investigated by the estate as part of its due diligence,” Ellsworth expressed during the hearing in Clark County District Court.
She noted that Hsieh’s probate case has been ongoing for years and that the emergence of a new will was both surprising and strange.
“This purported will pops up with some interesting and kind of unusual provisions, to say the least,” she remarked.
The document came to light over four years after the former Zappos CEO’s death, but the circumstances surrounding its discovery remain unclear.
Efforts to verify the identities of several individuals linked to the will, including the witnesses who signed it and the person who discovered it, have largely failed.
Probate and estate-planning lawyers have characterized the newly surfaced will as confusing, saying it contains clunky language and details that are unusual for such documents.
During the court proceedings, attorneys representing the named executors in the will argued that it appears to satisfy statutory requirements and has a presumption of validity.
In contrast, the legal team for Hsieh’s estate insisted they are still investigating the will, emphasizing that the presence of names on the document does not guarantee its legitimacy.
“We’re not sure who these people are,” said Dara Goldsmith, an attorney representing the estate.
Tony Hsieh, who was instrumental in revitalizing downtown Las Vegas through his leadership at Zappos, passed away in 2020 at the age of 46 due to injuries from a house fire in Connecticut.
Hsieh’s father, Richard Hsieh, serves as the court-appointed administrator of his estate, and his legal representatives have consistently stated in court documents that Tony Hsieh died intestate, or without a will.
However, in a surprising twist, law firms McDonald Carano and Greenberg Traurig filed court documents in April presenting a copy of Hsieh’s last will and testament, dated March 13, 2015, alongside a letter explaining how it was discovered.
The will was reportedly unearthed in February among the personal belongings of the late Pir Muhammad, who was noted to have been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and was allegedly unaware of Hsieh’s passing.
The letter failed to disclose when Muhammad died or any details about his life and connections to Hsieh.
Hsieh had designated Muhammad as an executor of his will and granted him “exclusive possession” of the original document to prevent any destruction of it, according to the will.
Nevertheless, many individuals who were familiar with Hsieh have claimed they have no recollection of Pir Muhammad, and extensive searches by the Review-Journal found no connections between Muhammad and Southern Nevada.
A letter explaining the find was penned by a person named Kashif Singh, who was identified as Muhammad’s grandson.
However, the letter did not provide any contact information or further details regarding Singh, leading to additional questions surrounding the legitimacy of the will’s claims.
In June, the law firms filed further legal documents to affirm the will’s validity and included a redacted copy of Muhammad’s death certificate.
The certificate, hailing from Pakistan, verifies that Muhammad was born in 1931 and passed away in October 2022, more than two years prior to the discovery of Hsieh’s will.
Crucially, the certificate does not confirm that the deceased Pir Muhammad was the same individual referenced in Hsieh’s will.
Research by the Review-Journal discovered over 1,000 Facebook profiles bearing the name Pir Muhammad, with many indicating residence in Pakistan.
In court, Goldsmith reiterated the uncertainty surrounding the will’s origins, stating, “We don’t know where in the world this document was located.”
“We have no idea,” she concluded.
Judge Ellsworth’s decision to defer the matter reflects the complexities and uncertainties surrounding the will and the Hsieh estate.
image source from：reviewjournal
