Bed Bath & Beyond shares fall sharply after CFO jumps to his death
Gustavo Arnal, the chief financial officer of the beleaguered retailer, jumped to his death from a high-rise apartment in Manhattan on Friday afternoon, a law enforcement source previously told CNN. The NYPD said in a statement Sunday that Arnal, 52, was found unconscious and unresponsive outside his luxury 57-story skyscraper in the Tribeca neighborhood.
The police source told CNN on Sunday that Arnal’s wife saw him jump. The source said that although no suicide note was found, no criminality is suspected.
Arnal was named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit accusing him, Ryan Cohen and other major shareholders of engaging in a “pump and dump” scheme to artificially inflate the price of the company’s stock. The lawsuit was filed last month in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit alleges that Arnal and others made misleading statements and omissions when communicating to investors about the company’s strategic plans and financial condition, and delayed disclosures about owning and selling its own shares. The suit also alleges that the stakeholders shared false earnings figures and the company’s plans to spin off its “Buy Buy Baby” brand to fuel a stock-buying frenzy.
On Tuesday, the company named Laura Crossen, senior vice president of finance, as its interim chief financial officer, and she will continue in her role as chief accounting officer.
–CNN’s Brynn Gingras, Liam Reilly, Ramishah Maruf and Samantha Beech contributed to this report.
