Camden, NJ – The father and son’s duo behind a scheme of fraud of values that involved the infamous Deli of New Jersey of $ 100 million was sentenced to several months in prison on Tuesday.
Peter Coker Jr. was sentenced to 40 months. With the credit for the time fulfilled, it must about 12 months locked up. But it could be released before that given the way in which federal inmates are given free time for good behavior.
On early Tuesday, the 56 -year -old father, North Carolina businessman, Peter Coker Mr., was sentenced to six months in jail, followed by six months of confinement in the home, for his role in the case.
The Cakers and a third man, James Patten, admitted to the scheme in orchestrated the fraudulent inflation of the shares of two companies to position them better for mergers with private companies.
One of the companies, Hometown International, ended up having a market capitalization of more than $ 100 million despite having only a small small delicatessen store in southern Jersey.
The other company, E-Waste, had an even greater market capitalization, despite not having commercial operations.
Coker Jr. was brutally attacked while he was in a Thai prison waiting for extradition in early 2023, his lawyer said in his sentence for securities fraud in the Federal Court of New Jersey.
Coker Jr. was presented by 10 fellow inmates in the Thai blockade, said his lawyer. Coker Jr. was detained there after the police found him in Thailand in the accusation in the United States for the values fraud scheme involving Deli’s owner and a related Shell company
Coker Jr.’s lawyer, John Azzarello, cited his time in Thai prison and in the 26 months or so he has served in a ESSEX County prison, by asking a judge to sentence him to serve effectively, or only a few more months.
Azzarello called those conditions in both “inhuman” prisons.
Azzarello also detailed how Coker Jr. suffered from severe cirrhosis of the liver as a result of alcohol abuse, “a bottle of whiskey per day”, before being arrested in Thailand.
He said that Coker Jr. had been hospitalized several times for his condition, and that doctors were considering making a liver transplant.
Coker Jr., speaking with Judge Christine O’Hearn in the United States District Court in Camden, said: “This crime has changed me deeply.”
“The assault and horrors I experienced in Bangkok prison, I wouldn’t want my worst enemy,” said Coker Jr., with a yellow piece jail uniform.
“It was the lowest point of my life.”
He also expressed his regret for his role in the scheme, which involved his father and another man.
“It is very important for me that his honor and my parents know that I would like to be able to return,” and not commit the crime, said Coker Jr.
“Kill me, every time I think about it, how my actions affected my parents,” he said.
“My parents should never have associated with this abhorrent crime,” said Coker Jr.
“My greed destroyed us both.”
Coker Jr. faces deportation after complying with his sentence. He resigned from his American citizenship in 2019 and has citizens in the Caribbean Nation St. Kitts.
During his sentence, Coker Mr. received the order to pay a fine of $ 500,000 and pay up to $ 644,000 in restitution.
“I stay before you extremely regretted by my actions,” said Coker Mr. while his wife, daughter, grandchildren and friends watched.
“I am very sorry for my part. This episode has been the worst moment of my life,” said 82 -year -old Chapel Hill resident. “I regret all investors who have been harmed by my shares.”
The federal judgment of sentence had suggested a prison sentence from 51 to 63 months for Coker.
But prosecutors said they wanted less time than that, namely, the upper end of a rank from zero to 24 months that stipulated when it declared themselves guilty.
Judge O’Hearn said he would have sentenced Coker Mr. much longer in jail if he were not as old as he.
“This was a fraudulent scheme from the beginning,” Judge O’Hearn said at the beginning of the hearing.
“Companies are, in fact, useless, and there is no possibility of recovery,” O’Hearn said.
“This was a very sophisticated fraudulent scheme of several years that involved a kind of esoteric corporate structure, from which I have learned more than I never care about,” said the judge. “One that was illegal … and caused harm.”
The judge opened the hearing delivering a blow to the defense lawyers, adopting the argument of the prosecutors that there were almost $ 5 million in losses of the scheme, which included investments from the universities of Duke and Vanderbilt.
“What is the motivation here that is not greed? Because I don’t see it,” O’Hearn asked in a moment, after pointing out that the three defendants were worth millions of dollars each.
Coker Mr., who was a star basketball player in Dartmouth and then in the state of North Carolina, has a net assets of $ 6 million, the judge said.
Patten will be sentenced on June 10.
The young Coker was not in court while his father was sentenced, due to a long delay in transporting it from a jail in Essex County. He has been arrested there without bail since he was extradited from Thailand in March 2023 after his arrest there as a fugitive.
Coker Mr. Coker, Zach Intrat, asked O’Hearn to sentence him without a time in prison after describing him as a good family man who never played his criminal conduct after he was accused for the first time.
“I don’t think they are many more like Pete,” said the defense lawyer. “It’s Cortés, its manners are impeccable.”
Intrate repeatedly referenced Susan Coker, who has been married to Peter for 61 years, asking the judge to allow the couple to remain a meeting for their lives.
“He has the responsibility of participating in a crime that not only hurt other people, who not only hurt his family, but involved his son, his only son, and knowing that his son has been imprisoned in part of his own actions and knowing what has happened to his son during that term of imprisonment.”
“Judge, I think having to live with that is a punishment that could be worse than even what you could impose,” said Intrat.
The lawyer also argued that Coker Mr. was not the “main engine” for the scheme.
Susan Coker told the judge: “He is a wonderful guy.”
“I know that if I had a second chance, you would never have done any of this,” Susan said, his cracked voice.
Coker Mr. and Patten were arrested in September 2022, months after both the hometown merged with a bioplastic company, and more than a year after E-Waste made its own fusion with a company of electric vehicles.
Coker Jr., who previously lived in Hong Kong, was arrested months later.
The men were accused more than a year after CNBC detailed a network of questionable connections between the hometown and electronic waste, as well as the cases of the previous criminal and civil court of Coker Mr. and Patten, and consulting agreements with both companies that benefited those two men.
The fraud came to light in April 2021 when the manager of coverage funds, David Einhorn, said the market capitalization of Hometown International was $ 100 million despite having only an asset whose annual income of selling sandwiches, soft drinks and chips were less than $ 36,000 during the last two years combined.
“The pastrami must be incredible,” Einhorn wrote in a letter to customers.
Intrate said Tuesday that he believed that the case was largely prosecuted due to the Einhorn letter, which generated significant coverage in the media.
The scam, which was carried out from 2014 to September 2022, coordinated the negotiation of the shares of the companies, creating the false impression of the demand for actions that were negotiated in the OTC market.
The scheme began when Patten suggested the creation of the hometown as an umbrella corporation for his friend Paul Morina, director of the high school and coach of renowned fighting. The company would continue to be the owner of the Delicatessen store in its hometown in Paulsboro, New Jersey.
Morina and the other owner of Deli did not know Patten’s scheme to manipulate the actions of the hometown.
The price of Hometown shares increased by more than 900% during the scheme. The price of electronic waste increased by almost 20,000%.
In 2010, Patten declared himself guilty in the Federal Court of New Jersey of a charge of fraud by mail in relation to sending a client a false financial state to cover up bad investments he made with his money. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison in that case.
Four years earlier, Patten was prohibited by the Fine Corridor Corridor to act as a stockbroker for not complying with an arbitration award of more than $ 753,000, violating the securities laws and the operations not authorized by stirring the account of a client.
Coker Mr. years ago was sued for allegedly hiding money from creditors and alleged fraud related to business. Denied irregularities in those cases.
