Harvard keeping eye on Tony Hsieh’s probate case after his will gave school millions

Harvard University is keeping an eye on Las Vegas tech mogul Tony Hsieh’s probate case, after his will recently surfaced years after his death with a multimillion-dollar gift for his alma mater.

Attorney Alan Freer, a partner with Las Vegas law firm Solomon Dwiggins Freer & Steadman, filed court papers Friday saying his firm represents Harvard and requesting “special notice of all events” relevant to the probate case.

He asked to be served with copies of all notices, pleadings and other documents filed in the case, with a copy to a Harvard email address listed online as a contact for transferring gifts to the university from trusts and estates.

Freer, a trust and estate litigator, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Hsieh, the former CEO of online shoe seller Zappos and face of downtown Las Vegas’ economic revival, died on Nov. 27, 2020, at age 46 from injuries suffered in a Connecticut house fire.

He was unmarried and died with a massive fortune, having sold Zappos to Amazon in a $1 billion-plus deal and assembled a sprawling real estate portfolio. Hsieh’s father has been managing his son’s estate, and the dad’s legal team has stated multiple times in court filings that the younger Hsieh died without a will.

But in a surprising and bizarre turn of events, law firms that aren’t working for the family filed court papers last month with a copy of Hsieh’s seven-page last will and testament — dated March 13, 2015 — and a letter explaining how it was found.

The letter stated that the will was found in late February in the personal belongings of the late Pir Muhammad. According to the letter, Muhammad suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and was not aware that Hsieh had died.

The letter did not say when Muhammad died or where he lived, nor did it provide any details about his career or his association with Hsieh.

Several people who knew Hsieh have said they never heard of Pir Muhammad, and probate and estate-planning lawyers have said Hsieh’s will is confusing, clunky and features language and details they don’t normally see in such documents.

In the will, Hsieh gifted $3 million to Harvard. He reportedly graduated from the Ivy League school in 1995 with a computer science degree.

He allocated money to other groups in the will, including $500,000 to the American Red Cross and $250,000 each to Goodwill of Southern Nevada and affordable-housing developer Nevada HAND, the document shows.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.