Bed Bath & Beyond CFO who died after falling from NYC high rise was subject of insider trading and fraud lawsuit just before death, documents show

The Bed Bath & Beyond CFO, who was found dead on Friday after falling from a New York City apartment building, was named in a lawsuit accusing him of fraud.

Less than two weeks ago, the executive was named in a federal class-action lawsuit on allegations of federal securities fraud, insider trading, and breach of fiduciary duty.

Bed Bath & Beyond announced last week that it is closing 150 stores and cutting 20% of its corporate staff.

The lawsuit claims that the CFO and Ryan Cohen collaborated to inflate the price of Bed Bath & Beyond's stock.

The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The investor is leading the case.

The defendants, knowing that the information they disclosed was false, took advantage of the inflated stock price and used fraudulent and misleading SEC filings to sell all their shares and options at artificially inflated prices to the public.

On August 18th, both Cohen and Arnal sold their shares of the company, causing the stock price to plunge.

According to the lawsuit, Cohen approached the CFO about his "pump and dump" scheme and convinced him that it would be a good idea.

The lawsuit says defendants would profit handsomely from the rise in price and could coordinate their selling of shares to maximize their returns.

According to the suit, the bank aided and abetted the plan by allowing Cohen to use JPM's accounts to effectuate such transactions and laundered the proceeds of their criminal conduct.

Cohen's involvement in similar plans was noted in the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, Cohen has historically used pump and dump schemes to raise much needed capital.

People for Bed Bath & Beyond did not reply to Insider's request to comment.