Bed Bath & Beyond CFO dies after falling from NY building

Gustavo Arnal, 52, who was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Bed Bath & Beyond, fell to this death from a building in Manhattan on Friday, according to multiple sources, including the New York post who noted that Arnal died from a fall from New York’s “Jenga Building.”

Despite claims that Arnal jumped from the building, the New York Police Department have not released any details on Arnal’s death and are awaiting the results of an autopsy from the New York Medical Examiner.

“The entire Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. organization is profoundly saddened by this shocking loss,” Bed, Bath and Beyond said in a statement.

Bed, Bath and Beyond have recently undergone a turbulent period including a 50% drop in their share price, several store closures and many redundancies. Ryan Cohen, who was a large shareholder for Bed, Bath and Beyond, caused the share price to tumble after he sold 9.4 million shares.

Arnal also sold 55,013 shares in Bed Bath & Beyond in several transactions between August 16-17. Reuters’ calculations show that based on SEC filings, Arnal’s sales totaled approximately $US1.4 million ($2.1 million), and Arnal reportedly still held 255,400 shares.

Both Arnal and Cohen were sued after several accusations that they were involved in a “pump and dump” scheme. They were accused of bulk buying shares to artificially increase the company’s share price.

The class action lawsuit listed both men as defendants and was filed by a group of shareholders who said they lost about $1.2 billion.

The filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia alleged that Arnal “agreed to regulate all insider sales by BBBY’s officers and directors to ensure that the market would not be inundated with a large number of BBBY shares at a given time.”

The lawsuit also alleged that Arnal was guilty of issuing misleading statements to investors.

Bed, Bath and Beyond responded to questions about the lawsuit by saying that it was “in the early stages of evaluating the complaint but based on current knowledge the company believes the claims are without merit.”