Sept 4 (Reuters) – The chief financial officer of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc ( BBBY.O ) fell to his death from a skyscraper in New York’s Tribeca known as “Jenga” on Friday afternoon, police said on Sunday, days after the struggling retailer announced. They were closing shops and firing workers.
Gustavo Arnal, 52, joined Bed Bath & Beyond ( BBBY.O ) in 2020. Previously, he worked as CFO for London-based cosmetics brand Avon and had a 20-year stint with Procter & Gamble (PG.N), according to his LinkedIn profile.
At 12:30 pm ET (1630 GMT) on Friday, police responded to a 911 call and found a 52-year-old man dead near the building, suffering from fall injuries. Police identified the man as Gustavo Arnal.
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The police statement did not provide further details about the circumstances of Arnall’s death, saying the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death. Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed the death in a press release on Sunday but did not provide any details.
The big-box chain — once dubbed the “category killer” in home and bath supplies — has seen its fortunes plummet after trying to sell its own brand or private label products.
Last week, Bed Bath & Beyond said it would close 150 stores, cut jobs and revamp its merchandising strategy to turn around its money-losing business.
It forecast same-store sales for the second quarter were down 26 percent than expected and said it held back its baby purchases. Read more
Arnal sold 55,013 shares in Bed Bath & Beyond in multiple transactions from Aug. 16-17, Reuters calculations based on SEC filings showed. The sale was about $1.4 million, and Arnall still owned about 255,400 shares.
In the year On August 23, the company, Arnall and major shareholder Ryan Cohen were indicted for allegedly artificially inflating the company’s stock price in a “pump and dump” scheme, alleging that Arnall sold the stock at a high price after the scheme. .
The class-action lawsuit lists Arnal as one of the defendants and was filed by a group of shareholders alleging losses of about $1.2 billion.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Arnal “agreed to control all insider sales by BBB officers and directors so as not to flood the market with an excessive number of BBB shares at any given time.”
The lawsuit alleges that he made materially misleading statements to investors.
The company is “in the early stages of evaluating the complaint, but based on current knowledge, the company believes the claims are without merit.”
Shares in Bed Bath & Beyond have been highly volatile in recent months, seen as “meme” stocks, trading on social media sentiment rather than economic fundamentals.
Cohen, the billionaire investor, disclosed a nearly 10% stake in early March. Cohen’s RC Ventures On August 17, he announced plans to sell his stake. Read more
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Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Deepa Babington
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