The charcuterie was real. His $100 million worth was hogwash, the father and son behind the scheme admit.

More than three years later a small delicatessen As South Jersey became the unlikely home of an international investment scam stretching as far as Hong Kong and Thailand, the father-son team who masterminded the complex financial scheme pleaded guilty Thursday before a federal court.

Peter Coker, Sr., 82, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and his son, Peter Coker, Jr., 56, formerly of Hong Kong, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn in Camden for securities fraud and conspiracy charges.

They each face up to 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine when they are sentenced next year.

The bizarre affair came to light in 2021 when the Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, about nine miles southwest of Philadelphia — a place known more for its burgers, fries and hoagies than the next Wall Street’s big bet — appeared in public filings. which struck financial experts as too good to be true.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company – founded in 2014 in Nevada – discussed its new “deli concept” called Your Hometown Deli, which was to offer sandwiches, food items and “homemade” grocery products “in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. »

In subsequent public reports, the small sandwich shop brought in less than $40,000 in annual income from selling Wiz cheesesteaks and fries. Yet its parent company, Hometown International, which owned nothing but cold meats – was soon valued at more than $100 million.

“The pastrami must be amazing,” wrote the hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who was the first to draw attention to the company’s valuation in a shareholder newsletter.

In reality, there was no pastrami on the menu.

But the mystery was added to the revelation that the grocery store belonged to Paul Morina, a famous wrestling coach at Paulsboro High School, who became on paper the CEO of Hometown International, which bought the grocery store. Morina was abruptly expelled in May 2021.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, this was an elaborate ruse by the Cokers to manipulate securities prices through a coordinated trading scheme, creating false impressions of supply and demand for worthless securities.

Officials said James Patten, a friend and former classmate of Morina’s, convinced him to put the grocery store under the control of Hometown International, officials said. After Hometown International was formed, prosecutors said it was used as a vehicle for a reverse merger, artificially inflating both its price and that of a related company, E-Waste, through manipulative trading . according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hometown International began selling shares in October 2019 on the OTC market and shortly after, Patten and the Cokers took control of Hometown International’s management and its shares from the deli owners, while seeking to take over control of the shares and management of E-Waste Corporation. Prosecutors said they then arranged the transfer of millions of shares to a number of entities controlled by Coker Jr., in an attempt to disguise their control over the shares.

In addition, they also transferred shares to family members, friends and associates, using these accounts to make a number of coordinated transactions, which artificially inflated the price of Hometown International shares and of E-Waste by giving the false impression that there was genuine market interest in the stock, prosecutors said.

Hometown’s stock price increased by 939% and e-waste’s by 19,900%, according to the government.

Patton pleaded guilty last year securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

__

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Ted Sherman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on @TedShermanSL.