Home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond issued a statement about the death of its chief financial officer two days after he leaped to his death from a Manhattan high-rise.
Gustavo Arnal, 52, died in what police have said appears to have been a suicide, according to The New York Times.
His body was found Friday near the Jenga building where he lived, and “appeared to suffer from injuries indicative from a fall from an elevated position,” police said in a statement.
According to a report by the New York Post, Arnal’s wife was in the family’s 18th-floor apartment at the time of his death. The Post reported he did not speak to her before jumping.
The Post also reported that no suicide note was left.
Bed Bath & Beyond released a statement on Sunday about Arnal’s death, saying, “The entire Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. organization is profoundly saddened by this shocking loss.”
“I wish to extend our sincerest condolences to Gustavo’s family. Gustavo will be remembered by all he worked with for his leadership, talent and stewardship of our Company. I am proud to have been his colleague, and he will be truly missed by all of us at Bed Bath & Beyond and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him,” Independent Chair of the Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Board of Directors Harriet Edelman said, according to the statement.
Life is not a game and neither is investing. I pray for the Arnal family. Sure he was under tremendous pressure. Financial media reports numbers w/total disregard for humans behind them. Declare “losers” daily & cheer demise of certain stocks. This is good time for introspection. pic.twitter.com/qyP1Nf0aL6
— Charles V Payne (@cvpayne) September 4, 2022
Arnal sold 55,013 shares of the company on Aug. 16 and 17, according to Reuters, which estimated the sale netted Arnal $1.4 million.
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Arnal had about 255,400 shares remaining, Reuters reported.
On Aug. 23, the company, Arnal and shareholder Ryan Cohen were sued, alleging that a scheme had been cooked up to artificially inflate the value of the stock.
Arnal’s sale of stock was alleged to be part of the plot, Reuters reported.
The class action lawsuit claimed 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 claimed Arnal gave “materially misleading statements to investors,” according to Reuters.
Bed Bath & Beyond recently said it would close 150 stores and slash jobs in an effort to turn around the company.
The store closings followed a second quarter in which same-store sales dropped 26 percent year over year.
Raymond James downgraded the company’s stock despite the cuts, saying the action “only kicks the can down the road,” according to CNBC.
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