Peter Coker Sr. outside U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, March 15, 2023.
Dan Mangan | CNBC
Peter Coker Jr., left, is issued search warrants from police at his villa on the southern resort island of Phuket, Thailand, Jan. 11, 2023.
Crime Suppression Division, Royal Thai Police | AP
A third defendant, James Patten, pleaded guilty in December 2023 to the same charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud in connection with the company once known as Hometown International and another firm.
Lawyers for the Cokers reached a deal with federal prosecutors that stipulates neither side will argue for more or less than a range of prison time at sentencing for both men. That agreement does not bind the judge to deliver sentences within those ranges.
For the 82-year-old Coker Sr., the range is zero to two years in prison. For his 56-year-old son, the range is 30 months to 50 months.
The Cokers and Patten each admitted their roles in the scheme to artificially boost the stock price of Hometown, whose only real business asset was the Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, as well as the shares of a shell company then known as E-Waste.
Hometown’s stock price rose by more than 900% as a result of the scheme. The price of E-Waste rose by nearly 20,000%.
The scam, which ran from 2014 through September 2022, involved coordinated trading of the stocks of both companies, creating a false impression of demand for their sh