An executive at a corporation who was facing a $1 billion class action lawsuit for illegally manipulating stock prices appeared to have jumped to his death from a posh, famous New York City structure. Police have identified the person who committed himself by jumping to his death during the past weekend as Gustavo Arnal, the chief financial officer of Bed Bath & Beyond.
A Bed Bath & Beyond executive may have jumped to his death last week from his opulent 18th-floor apartment in Lower Manhattan while facing a $1.2 billion “pump-and-dump” stock fraud lawsuit.
A class-action lawsuit accuses Ryan Cohen, the creator of Chewy.com, and other defendants of fraudulently inflating the share price of the struggling housewares company BBB. Gustavo Arnal, who served as BBB’s CFO, is one of the defendants listed in the lawsuit.
The class-action lawsuit was submitted on August 23 to the federal court in Washington, DC, and claims that the plan also included “a classic attempt to spark a gamma squeeze.”
Arnal passed away just as the action, which was first brought by a woman who claimed she purchased more than 8,000 shares of BBY between March and August of this year, has grown to include clients whose cumulative investments during that time period topped $1.2 billion.
Additionally, the firm disclosed that it will lay off over 20% of its workers and close over 150 stores bearing its name.
Bed Bath & Beyond, a retailer of household products, is currently dealing with some payback for removing Mike Lindell’s MyPillow from their stock in 2021. Many people believe Lindell’s support of former President Donald Trump and his reluctance to recognize the results of the 2020 election were the true reasons the items were taken from shelves, despite the national retailer’s assertions that low sales were the cause.
The shares of the former retail behemoth has fallen recently. To try to halt the bleeding, the company was obliged to lay off staff and close many facilities. Nevertheless, based on the continued decline in stock prices, it appears that these efforts are failing.
