Tony Hsieh’s father sought self-enrichment after former Zappos boss died, court filing claims

Tony Hsieh’s father set out to enrich himself through his son’s estate after the Las Vegas tech mogul died, according to a new court filing, which alleged the elder Hsieh has avoided paying for a lease that his son’s business signed.

Utah film-studio owner Quinn Capital Partners claimed in a court filing Thursday that Richard Hsieh, administrator of his son’s estate, has been paid at least $8 million from the estate to oversee it and as a beneficiary of it.

The landlord also claimed that Tony Hsieh wanted to give his assets to a charitable foundation upon his death. But the former Zappos boss died without a will, and his father obtained court approval to manage the estate through his son’s probate case.

“Unfortunately, Richard had different plans for his son’s estate, plans that included personal enrichment,” Quinn alleged in the court filing last week.

It also claimed in the filing: “Not paying Quinn is Richard’s objective.”

Attorneys for the elder Hsieh did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

All told, multiple parties have filed court papers alleging they had business dealings with Tony Hsieh and staked claims against the estate. The recent filing also shows that more than four years after the business mogul’s death, the legal battle over the sprawling portfolio he left behind is not over.

Las Vegas impact

Hsieh was the CEO of online shoe seller Zappos and the face of downtown Las Vegas’ economic revival.

He moved Zappos from a Henderson office park to the former Las Vegas City Hall in 2013. He also spent a fortune on bars, eateries, tech startups and real estate in the Fremont Street area through a side venture originally called Downtown Project.

Hsieh lived downtown in an Airstream trailer with a pet alpaca, had a fondness for Northern Nevada’s Burning Man festival and sported a mohawk. But after the pandemic abruptly ended his interactions and good times in Las Vegas, he emerged in the ski town of Park City, Utah, buying several houses there in 2020.

He was replaced as top boss of Zappos in the summer of 2020 without a formal announcement from the company he had led for two decades. Months later, he died on Nov. 27, 2020, at age 46 from injuries suffered in a Connecticut house fire.

As part of his probate case, his family filed more than 100 sale notices in court in a two-day span in early 2021 for his Las Vegas real estate holdings. The next month, his family submitted nearly 20 sale notices in one day for his Park City properties.

By this past fall, Hsieh’s family had sold a dozen properties in Las Vegas through his probate case for more than $45 million combined.

‘Random projects like koi fish or tree houses’

Court cases have included detailed accounts of Hsieh’s drug use and bizarre behavior in his final year alive, as well as allegations that people close to Hsieh took advantage of him financially as his health spiraled downward.

There were also multiple creditors’ claims against his estate.

As the Review-Journal previously reported, these included a $75 million claim for the “anticipated profit” from Hsieh’s venture in a documentary-movie streaming service. There was also a claim by an associate whose work duties could include, as Hsieh had put it, “random projects like koi fish or tree houses,” and a claim by an artist who made a “ceiling brain prototype” for one of Hsieh’s Park City properties.

Quinn, the studio landlord, sued a company formerly owned by Hsieh called PC Studios in 2021. According to the complaint, Hsieh’s business had rented Utah Film Studios in Park City for $250,000 per month, and the five-year lease was signed less than a month before he died.

The tenant later vacated the complex but still owed $1.75 million, according to the complaint, filed in Summit County District Court in Utah.

Hsieh “lacked capacity” when the lease was signed, as his mental and physical health had rapidly deteriorated amid excessive drug use, and Quinn received more than $1 million for a two-month occupancy of the studio, according to a court filing in the case in 2023 by attorneys for Hsieh’s father.

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