‘Absurd’: Tony Hsieh’s father wants Nevada Supreme Court involved with probate case
Tony Hsieh’s father is asking the Nevada Supreme Court to reverse a ruling that gave two outside lawyers a role in his son’s estate, claiming it creates “absurd and unworkable consequences.”
Attorneys for Richard Hsieh, administrator of the late former Zappos chief’s estate, filed a petition with Nevada’s highest court on Tuesday. They called the Clark County District Court ruling at issue “manifestly wrong,” alleging that if it “remains uncorrected, it would invite similar fraud in other estate cases.”
“A court that issues an order that leads to such destructive results without a legal basis has manifestly abused its discretion,” the petition declared.
In an order dated Jan. 9, District Judge Gloria Sturman appointed Nevada lawyers Robert Armstrong and Mark Ferrario as co-special administrators of Tony Hsieh’s estate. The two attorneys never met Tony Hsieh or even worked on his estate planning, court records show.
They were named executors in a will that was filed in court more than four years after the Las Vegas mogul’s death. Lawyers for Hsieh’s estate have claimed the will is a forgery.
‘Backwards and wrong’
Sturman’s appointment of the two attorneys was for the “limited purpose” of arguing to admit Tony Hsieh’s purported will to probate and defending any contest to it, court records show.
Her ruling noted that she was “disinclined” to admit the will to probate, to remove Richard Hsieh as the administrator, or to limit his authority to manage his son’s estate.
According to Richard Hsieh’s petition to the Supreme Court, the two lawyers were nominated in a “fake will,” and the District Court authorized them to use estate resources to promote and defend the document.
“This is every bit as backwards and wrong as it sounds,” the petition claimed. “There is no legal precedent for what the court did.”
The elder Hsieh also argued that the lower court’s order “creates chaos” by establishing three personal representatives with overlapping and conflicting powers and duties.
He also noted that Tony’s “elderly parents” are heirs of the estate.
Neither Armstrong nor Ferrario responded to a request for comment Thursday.
Tony 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, and his dad’s legal team stated multiple times in court filings that the younger Hsieh died without a will.
However, law firms McDonald Carano and Greenberg Traurig teamed up to file court papers last April with a copy of Tony Hsieh’s seven-page last will and testament — dated March 13, 2015 — and a letter describing how it was found.
Each firm was representing one of its own: Armstrong is a trusts and estates lawyer with McDonald Carano, and Ferrario is a real estate litigator with Greenberg Traurig.
‘A false trail’
The surprising turn of events only became more bizarre. The will surfaced under still-unclear circumstances, and there have been no clear answers on who key people tied to the document even are.
Last month, attorneys for Tony Hsieh’s estate claimed in court papers that the will is fake.
They said that his signature in the will was forged, that none of his family, friends or colleagues had ever heard of key names in the document, and that the witnesses who signed it “likely do not exist.”
Lawyers Dara Goldsmith and Vivian Thoreen, who represent Hsieh’s father, did not accuse anyone by name of orchestrating the alleged forgery. But they said that whoever was “behind this scam went to extraordinary lengths to cover their tracks by creating a false trail.”
Tony Hsieh sold Zappos to Amazon in a $1 billion-plus deal and assembled a sprawling real estate portfolio. He became one of the biggest property owners in downtown Las Vegas and bankrolled bars, restaurants, tech startups and other concepts, all through a $350 million side venture originally called Downtown Project.
Managing the web of assets he left behind has also proved lucrative.
As of last spring, his family and their legal team had billed more than $18 million combined to run his estate since his death, according to filings in Hsieh’s probate case.
Their payments were approved by the court and are drawn from the estate, which was previously valued at more than $520 million, records show.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
