New York: Bed Bath & Beyond’s chief financial officer was killed in a fall from New York’s Tribeca skyscraper known as the “Jenga” tower on Friday afternoon (US time), police said, days after the struggling retailer announced that it would close stores and lay off workers.
Bed Bath & Beyond CFO Gustavo Arnal had been with the company since 2020.
Gustavo Arnal, 52, joined Bed Bath & Beyond in 2020. He previously worked as CFO of cosmetics brand Avon in London and spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble, according to his LinkedIn profile.
On Friday shortly after noon, police responded to a 911 call and found a 52-year-old man dead near the building who sustained injuries from a fall. Police identified the man as Gustavo Arnal.
The police statement did not provide further details on the circumstances leading to Arnal’s death, saying the New York City medical examiner’s office would determine the cause of death. Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed his death in a statement Sunday, but gave no details.
The supermarket chain has seen its fortunes falter after a bid to sell more of its own-brand or private-label products.
Last week, Bed Bath & Beyond said it would close 150 stores, cut jobs and review its merchandising strategy in a bid to turn around its money-losing business.
It forecast a larger-than-expected 26 percent drop in same-store sales for the second quarter and said it would keep its baby-buying business, which it had put up for sale.
Arnal sold 55,013 shares of Bed Bath & Beyond in multiple transactions on August 16 and 17, Reuters calculations based on SEC filings showed. Sales totaled about $1.4 million ($2.1 million) and Arnal still had almost 255,400 shares left.
On August 23, the company, Arnal, and major shareholder Ryan Cohen were sued over allegations of artificially inflating the company’s share price in a “pump and dump” scheme, with the lawsuit alleging that Arnal sold his shares to a higher price after the scheme.
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