The SEC will likely look into Ryan Cohen's exit from Bed Bath & Beyond stock, says former chair Jay Clayton

The sign outside the Bed Bath & Beyond store is seen in Westminster

Reuters

• The SEC will likely look into Ryan Cohen's exit of Bed Bath & Beyond, former chairman Jay Clayton said.
• Clayton noted extreme volatility following Cohen's sell off of his shares.
• "I'm sure they'll look into it," he said. "How they look into it — that's going to be up to them."

The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely look into Ryan Cohen's exit from Bed Bath & Beyond this week, former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said. 

Cohen, who is known for ambitious stakes in meme stocks, sold his holdings in Bed Bath & Beyond this week for a profit of $68 million. The star investor announced in March that his venture capital firm had taken a nearly 10% stake in the struggling home-goods retailer, sending the stock higher. Shares tumbled 40% Friday and are now less than half of their peak.

In an interview to CNBC, Clayton said the regulatory agency was likely to look into Cohen's exit of Bed Bath & Beyond, given the extreme stock volatility surrounding his exit, as well as the fact that he was an activist investor, meaning it's possible he had information that retail investors didn't have. 

"I'm sure they'll look into it," Clayton said . "How they look into it — that's going to be up to them. But I'm sure that they will look at this, both around the trading and around whether there was market activity with material, non-public information."

He added though that activist investors are generally aware of the rules.

But Whitney Tillson, a former hedge fund manager, called Cohen's exit a "total disgrace" and claimed in a blog post that he already asked the SEC to look into a potential investigation for manipulation of a security. 

Cohen's exit also came shortly after Bed Bath & Beyond, which reported a $224 million loss in the second quarter, said it would work with Kirkland & Ellis for debt restructuring, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

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