Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, NJ
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A fugitive facing federal felony charges of handling stock in the United States in connection with a small New Jersey deli whose parent company was once absurdly valued at $100 million has been arrested by authorities in a resort area of Thailand.
Peter Coker Jr., last known to be living in Hong Kong, his father and another man are charged in the case involving the deli owner, Hometown International, and a related shell company, E-Waste.
The Bangkok Post first reported that Coker Jr., 54, was arrested on January 11 in a hotel room in the Thalang district of Phuket province, Thailand.
“I can confirm that it did happen,” Matt Reilly, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, told CNBC in an email Wednesday.
Coker Jr.’s father, Peter Coker Sr., 83, and a third defendant, James Patton, 63, were arrested in the case in September in North Carolina. Since then, the elder Coker and Patton have appeared in New Jersey federal court, most recently on Tuesday, remotely via Zoom for a court hearing in Camden.
The trio is accused of fraudulently inflating the value of publicly traded companies that were touted as merger candidates with private companies.
The Bangkok Post reported that Coker Jr. was arrested under so-called red and black notices issued by the International Criminal Police Organization Interpol.
Thai police, working with the FBI, arrested Coker Jr. after tracking him to the hotel, The Post reported.
Coker Jr. was chairman of Hometown International, whose sole asset for years was Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey.
His father was a major shareholder in the company, which in 2021 had a stock market capitalization of $100 million, although the deli had less than $40,000 in total annual revenue.
Prosecutors said Cokers and Patten “artificially inflated” the value of Hometown International and E-Waste stock by 939% and 19,900%, respectively, through manipulated stock trades.
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