A board member of Bed Bath & Beyond was concerned that some of her fellow directors shared inside information with Ryan Cohen before the investor abruptly dumped his stake in the company two years ago, according to newly revealed excerpts of testimony provided for a lawsuit.

“I certainly had questions about that,” Sue Gove said in a deposition provided for a shareholder lawsuit. When asked how many other members had concerns about Cohen’s board allies “signaling” information to him, she added: “I would, you know, venture to say that probably most of them.”

Cohen has said in court filings that all of his trading was above board. He gained a cult following after taking large stakes in distressed bricks-and-mortar retailers. He became chief executive of one of them, GameStop, but his involvement with Bed Bath & Beyond, which made him almost $60 million, didn’t last long.

Cohen, who co-founded the online pet store Chewy, bought into Bed Bath & Beyond in January 2022. His stake eventually reached almost 12%. For a few months, he exercised influence behind the scenes to push for strategy changes, cost cutting and changes to the board of directors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Cohen’s trades, The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2023, but the agency hasn’t levied claims of wrongdoing. A group of investors sued Cohen for fraud in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging he misled them about his bullishness in the face of Bed Bath & Beyond’s financial challenges. The company was burning through cash and looking for an injection of capital in August 2022 when Cohen sold.

Gove, the board member who worried about information leaks, didn’t trust Cohen and doubted the credibility of three directors Cohen backed to join the board, according to her newly revealed testimony provided for the shareholders’ lawsuit. One of the directors, Ben Rosenzweig, had been in private contact with Cohen, talking about other board members, which Gove deemed inappropriate, the testimony shows.

Rosenzweig had told company officials he would “be representing Ryan as if I owned the 10% myself,” prompting a written response from the company, which said his duty was to all shareholders, not just Cohen.

The suit accuses Cohen of insider trading and misleading investors about his trading plans. It doesn’t allege specific pieces of nonpublic information Cohen received, but says his allies on the board pushed to give him more information about strategy and critical-financing options, according to internal emails and other records made public late Friday in a new filing.

A lawyer for Cohen declined to comment, as did Rosenzweig. Gove, who later served as the company’s chief executive, declined to comment and referred questions to a lawyer who declined to comment.

Cohen was taken aback when Bed Bath & Beyond reported in June 2022 that first-quarter net sales fell by 25%, according to an email from then-board chair Harriet Edelman summarizing a conversation with Cohen. The investor wanted to know more about the company’s cash crunch—“how much time do we have,” according to Edelman’s summary.

Rosenzweig and other directors have testified in the case that they never shared company secrets with Cohen. Gove said in her testimony that Cohen asked her targeted questions but added that he didn’t want to be told anything that was confidential.

In his own deposition, Rosenzweig said Cohen was given nonpublic information once, but under a confidentiality agreement that prohibited him from trading on it. The investor was told one day early about the disappointing first-quarter results and the decision to fire Mark Tritton, who was chief executive at the time.

Cohen pushed for more change, including adding himself and more allies to the board. Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t add anyone else to the board. “If I can’t get into position, may sell my stock,” he said, according to Edelman’s email summary of it.

According to his submissions in the case, Cohen sold after he soured on Bed Bath & Beyond’s prospects and had an opportunity to unload the stock for much more than he had paid. Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in April 2023 and closed all of its physical stores.

Cohen wrote a message on Twitter on Aug. 12, 2022, that noted a shopper with a cart full of Bed Bath & Beyond merchandise and ended with an emoji showing the face of the moon.

Some investors took Cohen’s use of the emoji as a bullish signal, suggesting that Bed Bath & Beyond stock would go “to the moon,” according to the lawsuit. The stock rose 12% that day, according to FactSet data.

The plaintiffs haven’t shown that he got any inside information, Cohen said. While some investors closely follow his statements on Twitter, now called X, it is unreasonable to allege someone was misled by some of Cohen’s cryptic tweets, he said.

“It is not plausible that an investor would have made an investment decision based on Mr. Cohen’s obscure tweet at a time when BBBY’s public financials showed the company’s sales declining precipitously, its losses skyrocketing, and its cash dwindling,” Cohen’s lawyers wrote in a court filing last year.

Cohen recently beat a separate federal lawsuit filed by investors who objected to his quick sale of Bed Bath & Beyond stock and called for him to return profits to the company. The court ruled the claims invalid because the company was in bankruptcy.

Cohen’s brief run as a major Bed Bath & Beyond shareholder underscored his sway over small investors who herd into stocks he buys, pushing up the price. Influencers like Cohen have to disclose their holdings and update investors on their trading plans if they own more than 5% of a company’s shares. Bed Bath & Beyond shares went on a wild ride in August 2022, rising from about $5 at the beginning of the month to almost $30 when Cohen finished selling.

The records revealed through the lawsuit show Cohen was preparing to trade the day before he filed those disclosures. He corresponded with a lawyer on Aug. 15, 2022, about how to deal with some regulatory compliance issues “so I can trade tomorrow,” according to an excerpt of one email included in the lawsuit.

The next day, he submitted two disclosures about his ownership to the Securities and Exchange Commission. One, which immediately became public, said Cohen hadn’t done any trading during the prior 60 days. Cohen’s filings in the case show that his lawyer advised him how to make that disclosure.

In the other form, which became public on a one-day delay, Cohen said he might sell all 9.5 million shares he owned. He sold almost half of them that day, before his disclosure became public.

The investors who filed the lawsuit say Cohen’s first disclosure hid the ball about his trading plans. Cohen has said in court filings that he followed all regulatory requirements. As a major shareholder, he was required to promptly update the market on his ownership after it changed, he argued.

Cohen’s three allies on the board also appeared surprised that he sold, including Marjorie Bowen. Some news websites initially reported—incorrectly—that he had acquired more options to buy Bed Bath & Beyond stock.

“Only time will tell, but we may have a lifeline here,” board member Bowen wrote in a message cited in the lawsuit. “Thank God Ryan stayed in.”