{"id":1633449,"date":"2022-09-06T06:19:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T10:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1633449"},"modified":"2022-09-06T06:20:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T10:20:11","slug":"bed-bath-beyond-cfo-had-been-facing-1-2-billion-stock-suit-before-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bed-bath-beyond-cfo-had-been-facing-1-2-billion-stock-suit-before-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Bed Bath &#038; Beyond CFO Had Been Facing $1.2 Billion Stock Suit Before Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbed-bath-beyond-cfo-had-been-facing-1-2-billion-stock-suit-before-suicide%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1633449&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The executive vice president and\u00a0<span class=\"example\">chief financial officer<\/span>\u00a0of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-bed-bath-beyond\">Bed Bath &#038; Beyond<\/a> (BBBY), who died from an apparent suicide when he reportedly jumped\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/bed-bath-beyond-exec-identified-as-man-who-plunged-to-death-nypd_4709837.html\">from a New York skyscraper<\/a>\u00a0on Sept. 2, had been facing a $1.2 billion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-stock\">stock<\/a> suit since late August over allegedly inflating the company\u2019s share value.<\/p>\n<p>The New York City medical examiner\u2019s office said\u00a0CFO Gustavo Arnal died from multiple blunt trauma and that he had taken his own life.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Arnal\u2019s death, a group of shareholders that claimed a loss of around $1.2 billion had sued him and majority shareholder Ryan Cohen, a billionaire investor and chairman of GameStop, over accusations of artificially inflating the firm\u2019s stock price in a \u201cpump and dump\u201d stock fraud scheme.<\/p>\n<p>The class-action suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 23\u201411 days prior to Arnal\u2019s death\u2014claims that Cohen approached Arnal about his plan to control shares of Bed Bath &#038; Beyond, in a scheme from which they could both profit. Arnal allegedly sold his shares at a higher price after the scheme.<\/p>\n<p>The filing alleged Cohen offered to purchase a large stake in the company, including call options on more than 1.6 million BBBY shares with a strike price between $60 and $80, while in exchange, Arnal would ensure that insiders wouldn\u2019t flood the market with the stock.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the plan, Arnal \u201cagreed to regulate all insider sales by BBBY\u2019s officers and directors to ensure that the market would not be inundated with a large number of BBBY shares at a given time,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-lawsuit\">lawsuit<\/a> reads. It also said Arnal issued \u201cmaterially misleading\u201d statements to investors regarding the company\u2019s strategic plans, financial condition, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The two were listed as defendants. One plaintiff, Pengcheng Si of Falls Church, Virginia, said she and her spouse bought 8,020 shares of the company between March 25 and Aug. 18 \u201cand have suffered realized and market losses of approximately $106,480.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s shares have been highly volatile in recent months, being viewed as a \u201cmeme\u201d stock, which trade more on social media sentiment than economic fundamentals.<\/p>\n<p>This year, BBBY stock climbed from $4.4o per share in early July to $30 per share on Aug. 17, around the time when Arnal sold more than 42,500 shares for more than $1 million, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketbeat.com\/instant-alerts\/nasdaq-bbby-insider-buying-and-selling-2022-08-2\/\">MarketBeat.com<\/a>. Following the completion of the transaction, Arnal still held nearly 267,900 shares in the company, valued at more than $6 million.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4709970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/09\/04\/Gustavo-Arnal-1200x675.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4709970\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/09\/04\/Gustavo-Arnal-1200x675.jpg\" alt=\"Gustavo Arnal\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Bed Bath &#038; Beyond CFO Gustavo Arnal. (Bed Bath &#038; Beyond Handout via Reuters)<\/figure>\n<p>The company\u2019s stock closed at $8.63 on Sept. 2.<\/p>\n<p>The court papers also claim that\u00a0Arnal and\u00a0Cohen discussed an exit strategy with J.P. Morgan Securities LLC before they sold their shares. Although BBBY is said to have been in the early stages of evaluating the complaint, it believes \u201cthe claims are without merit,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/bed-bath-beyond-cfo-plunges-death-new-yorks-jenga-tower-reports-2022-09-04\/\">Reuters<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>A BBBY spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.\u00a0The company said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Monday, \u201cWe will not comment on litigation and ask that you please respect Mr. Arnal\u2019s family and their privacy at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cohen didn\u2019t respond\u00a0to a request for comment\u00a0by press time.<\/p>\n<h2>Sorrow<\/h2>\n<p>Arnal, 52, fell to death from his 18th-floor apartment in the 56 Leonard Street building, known as the \u201cJenga Tower,\u201d in Manhattan\u2019s Tribeca neighborhood, the New York City Police Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-09-04\/bed-bath-beyond-cfo-identified-as-man-who-plunged-to-death\">confirmed<\/a> to news outlets.<\/p>\n<p>BBBY confirmed Arnal\u2019s death in a Sept. 4\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bedbathandbeyond.gcs-web.com\/news-releases\/news-release-details\/bed-bath-beyond-inc-mourns-loss-executive-vice-president-and\">statement<\/a>, adding that the entire company was \u201cprofoundly saddened by this shocking loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur focus is on supporting his family and his team, and our thoughts are with them during this sad and difficult time. Please join us in respecting the family\u2019s privacy,\u201d said Harriet Edelman, chair of BBBY\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the\u00a0home-supply retail giant said it would\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/bed-bath-beyond-to-close-150-stores-while-laying-off-20-percent-of-its-employees_4702132.html\">close 150 stores<\/a>, cut jobs, and overhauled its merchandising strategy in an attempt to turn around the money-losing business.<\/p>\n<p>It forecast a bigger-than-expected 26 percent slump in second-quarter same-store sales, and said it would retain its Buy Buy Baby business, which it had put up for sale.<\/p>\n<p><em>If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis or is considering suicide, has mental health issues, or is engaging in substance abuse, dial or text the U.S. Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 to speak with a counselor. If you\u2019re in the United Kingdom, call the Samaritans at 116123.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The article has been updated with a response from a\u00a0BBBY spokesman.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-rita-li\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/default-user.png\" alt=\"Rita Li\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rita Li is a reporter with The Epoch Times, focusing on U.S. and China-related topics. She began writing for the Chinese-language edition in 2018.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The executive vice president and\u00a0chief financial officer\u00a0of Bed Bath &#038; Beyond (BBBY), who died from an apparent suicide when he reportedly jumped\u00a0from a New York skyscraper\u00a0on Sept. 2, had been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1633451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1633449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1633449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1633449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1633449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1633449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}