Bed Bath & Beyond CFO accused of &lsquo;pump and dump&rsquo; scheme before falling to his death from NYC skyscraper

Steve Mollman

A Bed Bath &amp; Beyond executive who <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/09/04/bed-bath-beyond-cfo-gustavo-arnal-dies-falls-jenga-building-nyc/">plunged to his death on Friday</a> stood accused in a lawsuit&mdash;along with activist investor Ryan Cohen&mdash;of participating in a &ldquo;pump and dump&rdquo; scheme to artificially inflate the company&rsquo;s value.<div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">



The beleaguered home goods retailer confirmed the death of CFO Gustavo Arnal on Sunday after a New York Post report stated he was the previously unidentified man who &ldquo;jumped&rdquo; from the iconic &ldquo;Jenga&rdquo; skyscraper in Manhattan.



The class-action lawsuit, filed on Aug. 23&mdash;11 days before Arnal&rsquo;s death&mdash;in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia lists the lead plaintiff as Pengcheng Si. The company said it was &#8220;in the early stages of evaluating the complaint, but based on current knowledge the company believes the claims are without merit,&#8221; according to Reuters.



The lawsuit alleges Cohen approached Arnal about a plan to control shares of the company so they could both profit. Bed Bath &amp; Beyond shares have been considered a meme stock in recent months, with a highly volatile price driven in no small part by social media sentiment.



&#8220;With control over a significant portion of the public float, Cohen would essentially act as a price support for the stock while Gustavo would act in a similar capacity by controlling the sale of shares by Insiders,&#8221; the lawsuit states, according to <a href="https://fortune.com/company/fox/" target="_blank">Fox</a> Business. &#8220;Under this arrangement, defendants would profit handsomely from the rise in price and could coordinate their selling of shares to optimize their returns.&#8221;&nbsp;



Arnal sold just over 55,000 shares in the company over a few days last month for about $1.4 million, but he still had nearly 255,400 remaining, according to Reuters.



As Fortune reported earlier, Cohen bought millions of shares in the company&mdash;raising hopes among retail investors he would help turn the retailer around&mdash;before <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/08/19/bed-bath-beyond-shares-plummet-again-after-cohen-exits-company/">completely withdrawing his position</a> last month.



Bed Bath &amp; Beyond declined to comment to Fortune about the lawsuit, requesting respect for Arnal&rsquo;s family and their privacy.</div>

The lawsuit claimed CFO Gustavo Arnal was involved in a scheme to artificially inflate the company&rsquo;s value.

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Bed Bath & Beyond CFO accused of &lsquo;pump and dump&rsquo; scheme before falling to his death from NYC skyscraper | Fortune

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