Posted Sep 28, 2022, 3:12 PMUpdated on Sep 28, 2022 at 3:47 PM
Deli (abbreviation of Delicatessen): warm and unfussy place where you can eat or take away products such as sandwiches, salads, soups, omelettes, meats and cheeses. In Paulsboro, New Jersey, the Your Hometown Deli, 40,000 dollars in revenue per year, reached a valuation of 113 million dollars in the midst of the Covid crisis in 2020. This grocery store was the sole asset of Hometown International, a company listed on a loosely regulated segment of Wall Street, just a cut above off-the-shelf, the least regulated of all…and therefore a paradise for crooks.
The company’s share price had mysteriously jumped from $1 to $14, giving the modest “Your Hometown Deli” the value of several three-star restaurants. Peter Coker, 80, his son Peter Coker junior, 53, and James Patten, 63, form the shock trio behind this feat. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just charged them with a dozen charges (fraud, manipulation, money laundering, etc.). From North Carolina to Macao, they are suspected of having orchestrated an artificial rise in the price to the detriment of small carriers.
