On Friday afternoon, the chief financial officer of Bed Bath & Beyond fell to his death from the Tribeca skyscraper known as the "Jenga" tower, authorities confirmed on Sunday, days after the troubled retailer revealed it was closing stores and laying off employees.
In 2020, 52-year-old Gustavo Arnal joined Bed Bath & Beyond. According to his LinkedIn page, he formerly served as CFO for the cosmetics company Avon in London and spent 20 years with Procter & Gamble.
Officers responded to a 911 call on Friday at 12:30 ET and discovered a 52-year-old male who had fallen and sustained fatal injuries. The individual was recognized by police as Gustavo Arnal.
The cause of Arnal's death will be determined by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, according to the police statement, which offered no other information on the circumstances surrounding his passing.
In a press release issued on Sunday, Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed his passing but provided no other information.
The big-box retailer, once considered a "category killer" in home and bath goods, has seen its fortunes decline after attempting to sell more private-label products.
Bed Bath & Beyond announced last week that it would shut 150 shops, eliminate jobs, and revamp its marketing strategy in an effort to turn around its money-losing business.
It estimated a larger-than-anticipated 26% decline in same-store sales for the second quarter and announced that it would not sell its Buy Buy Baby division.
On August 16-17, Arnal sold 55,013 shares of Bed Bath & Beyond in various transactions, according to calculations by Reuters based on SEC filings.
Arnal had around 255,400 shares left after the sales totaled almost $1,400,000.
The company, Arnal, and key shareholder Ryan Cohen were sued on August 23 for allegedly artificially increasing the firm's stock price in a "pump and dump" scheme, with the lawsuit saying that Arnal sold his shares at a higher price after the move.
A group of stockholders who claimed to have lost approximately $1.2 billion included Arnal as one of the defendants in their class-action complaint.
The complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that Arnal "committed to limit any insider sales by BBBY's officers and directors to prevent the market from being flooded with BBBY shares at one time."
According to the lawsuit, he also made deceptive comments to investors.
