Contract reportedly made on Post-It note before Hsieh’s death
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A man who claims he is owed more than $12 million of former Zappos CEO and Las Vegas entrepreneur Tony Hsieh’s estate, as part of a deal made on a sticky note, is suing for part ownership of the restaurant chain Nacho Daddy.
Mark Evensvold worked as the director of operations and director of business development at Nacho Daddy, a restaurant chain Hsieh invested in, his lawsuit said.
“Tony owned 25 percent of Nacho Daddy but was a de facto passive investor,” the lawsuit said.
At a meeting in 2019, Hsieh reportedly told Evensvold “that he would do whatever he could to make Evensvold a part-owner of Nacho Daddy,” the lawsuit said.
According to a creditor’s claim Evensvold filed last year, he is owed $12.5 million as part of a contract he entered with Hsieh at a Park City, Utah, property to help with bars, security and project management. His job brought in a $450,000 salary and a 20 percent interest in Nacho Daddy, the lawsuit said.
The claim, which is part of the legal probate process in cases where a person did not leave a will, includes a copy of the Post-it note and a transcription of a conversation between Evensvold and Hsieh from August 2020. The lawsuit filed Friday said Hsieh and Evensvold entered into “a contract.”
Previous court filings have said the contract was on a Post-It note. In addition, Evensvold signed an independent contractor and confidentiality agreement in September 2020, the lawsuit said.
Previous court documents have estimated Hsieh’s wealth at $840 million. He was known to do dealings on Post-Its.
Hsieh died in a house fire in November 2020 in Connecticut. He was 46. In December 2020, a judge named his father and brother as special administrators to his estate, since he did not have a will.
Evensvold left Las Vegas and moved to Park City, Utah, to work on the following projects, according to his lawsuit:
- A bar
- A boat/bar on a pond
- A Geo Globe community at a movie studio
- A magic-themed entertainment venue
- A patio
- An ice castle venue
- An ice-skating rink
“But for Tony’s offer of the signing bonus, Evensvold would not have entered into the agreement, would not have resigned from Nacho Daddy, and would not have relocated from Las Vegas to Park City,” the lawsuit said.
Evensvold’s lawsuit seeks damages of more than $15,000. He asks for a jury trial. It is unclear how Evensvold’s creditor’s claim may be affected by the lawsuit.
Lawyers for Hsieh’s estate have repeatedly written in court documents that Hsieh did not have the mental capacity to sign off on contracts in the months and years leading up to his death.
Court documents filed by Hsieh’s family last year indicated Hsieh used ketamine and nitrous oxide in the years before his death. According to friends, Hsieh used “as many as 50 cartridges of nitrous oxide a day, often in public, or during ‘meetings’ with people,” documents said. Court documents also said Hsieh’s bedroom was “littered with hundreds of spent nitrous oxide cartridges.”
In a court filing from earlier this month, lawyers for Hsieh’s estate claim “the balance on Tony’s line of credit ballooned to more than $250 million through a series of transactions,” including a $2.2 million fixed-fee for his attorney, a $7.5 million contract for another man to provide “financial consulting services,” a third contract worth $30 million for another man to “operate a boat bar and ice castle” and the purchase of the Zappos headquarters “for nearly $40 million more than its value.”
No party in the case has provided prior requests for comment.