Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, which sparked questions after its $100 million valuation brought to light an international investment scheme in South Jersey, became the unlikely focus of an international investment scam stretching all the way to Hong Kong and Thailand. The father-and-son team who orchestrated the complicated financial scheme pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom on Thursday. 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 to securities fraud and conspiracy charges. The bizarre case came to light in 2021 when the Hometown Deli in Paulsboro in Gloucester County about nine miles southwest of Philadelphia — a place known more for its burgers, fries, and hoagies than the next big bet on Wall Street — turned up in public filings that struck financial experts as odd. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the corporation — formed in 2014 in Nevada — spoke of its new “delicatessen concept” called Your Hometown Deli that was to feature “home-style” sandwiches, food items, and groceries “in a casual and friendly atmosphere.” In actuality, there was no pastrami on the menu board. A famed wrestling coach at Paulsboro High School, who on paper became the CEO of Hometown International, which bought out the deli. Morina was According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, it was all an elaborate ruse by the Cokers to manipulate securities prices through a pattern of coordinated trading, creating false impressions of supply and demand for securities that were worthless. Officials said that James Patten, a friend and former classmate of Morina, had convinced him to put the deli under the control of Hometown International, officials said
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