Forensics Take Center Stage in the Mystery Will of Tony Hsieh
Old magnifying glass on old handwriting
When tech executive Tony Hsieh died at age 46 in a tragic 2020 fire after battling drug abuse, it was believed he had left behind a fortune valued at hundreds of millions of dollars and no will.
But last March, seven typed pages, apparently containing the former Zappos chief executive’s final wishes, surfaced via snail mail to the Las Vegas courthouse.
Copies of the purported will, dated March 2015, were also sent to the offices of a Las Vegas trust attorney named Robert Armstrong. A man who identified himself as Kashif Singh soon called Armstrong’s offices.
Singh said he found the will in his dead grandfather’s belongings. The office of Armstrong, who said he never met Hsieh and yet was named a co-executor for Hsieh’s estate in the surprise will, received another befuddling document: a death certificate of Singh’s grandfather. It was from Balochistan, a province in Pakistan.
With over a year of mounting mystery and no real answers, the court approved forensic testing of the purported will, which began in the first week of June, kicking off the next phase in an already tortured legal battle for the future of Hsieh’s estate.
The peculiar details in his contested fortune hark back to another strange will from 50 years ago, involving yet another Las Vegas-based entrepreneur, known more now for his oddities than his accomplishments: Howard Hughes.
In 1976, three weeks after the death of the reclusive billionaire, a handwritten document claiming to be Hughes’s will appeared at the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.
Dubbed the “Mormon Will,” it was one of roughly 40 purported wills that emerged after Hughes’s death, and hundreds of people came forward to claim some of his vast fortune. The Mormon Will, however, received the most thorough scrutiny, enduring a seven-month jury trial and dueling testimonies by forensic experts until it was eventually declared a forgery.
The mystery will for Hsieh could face a similar legal process. Comparisons between Hsieh and Hughes have already been made in Las Vegas court by Judge Gloria Sturman.
A lot is at stake for the family. The Hsieh will included a “no contest” clause directed at Hsieh’s parents and two younger brothers. If even one of them challenged the document, they would all get nothing. Hsieh’s father, Richard Hsieh, has demanded a jury trial.
If the findings between the two teams of experts are at odds, that would mirror the trial for the Hughes Mormon Will.
A forged will and a brothel
The Mormon Will appeared one day in 1976 on a desk at the headquarters of the Utah church. It divided up Hughes’s estimated $2.5 billion estate to a few medical, educational and social groups, family members, employees and the church.
Lyter, who was in his 20s at the time, was one of several experts asked to testify on the will’s authenticity. He worked in a unit of the Internal Revenue Service and often looked at documents for tax-fraud cases.
His expertise was in ink analysis, which involved a series of physical and chemical procedures to determine the make and model of ink used.
Other forensic experts, particularly in handwriting analysis, concluded that the will didn’t match Hughes’s strokes, recalled Lyter. A jury eventually declared the will a forgery.
A ‘time of the essence’ test
In May, a Las Vegas judge appointed forensic expert Gerry LaPorte as the “special master” to oversee forensic testing of the Hsieh will. LaPorte, who runs his own private practice, is also currently the laboratory director for a federal investigations unit.
Probate cases are far from unusual for LaPorte. “I have probably five active cases right now involving wills,” he said. LaPorte was unable to speak on the specifics of his work on the Hsieh case, but much of his forensic testing process has been outlined in court filings.
The main forensic test conducted was around ink analysis, including on the signatures. Ink analysis work “is a ‘time of the essence’ test since the ink used for the signatures on the 2015 Will could be in an active drying process if they were applied within the two years,” wrote LaPorte.
Other tests that could eventually be conducted on the purported will include handwriting analysis of the signatures as well as fingerprints and DNA scans of the document.
According to LaPorte’s written recommendation to the court, he and his team will issue a comprehensive written report by July 24. Afterward, the Hsieh family’s experts will be able to respond.
If LaPorte’s findings support the veracity of the purported will, the already protracted legal battle will continue on.
Meanwhile, none of the witnesses who signed the document have come forward to the court, and Singh—the man who allegedly sent the mystery will and called Armstrong’s law firm offices—appears to have vanished.
For more information see Angel Au-Yeung “Forensics Take Center Stage in the Mystery Will of Tony Hsieh” The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2026.