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Fugitive in $100 million Paulsboro deli fraud case nabbed in Thailand

Peter Coker Jr. was taken into custody on Jan. 11 and was staying in a hotel room in the Thalang district of Thailand’s Phuket province.

Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, Goucester County, in April 2021.
Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, Goucester County, in April 2021.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer
    by Chris Dolmetsch, Bloomberg
    Published 

A fugitive charged with securities fraud over the Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, has been arrested in Thailand at the request of U.S. authorities.

Peter Coker Jr. was taken into custody Jan. 11, according to Matthew Reilly, a spokesperson for the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office. The Bangkok Post, which previously reported the arrest, said Coker was staying in a hotel room in the Thalang district of Thailand’s Phuket province.

He was charged in September along with his father, Peter L. Coker Sr., and another man, James T. Patten, with using accounts they controlled to create the appearance of active trading in two companies, Hometown International and E-Waste. Hometown’s sole asset was a small deli in Paulsboro.

Residents of Gloucester County frequented the deli for its subs, bagels, and Italian dishes and the fact that it was owned by Paul Morina, who was well-known in the community as a successful Paulsboro High School wrestling coach. Morina wasn’t charged, and authorities allege that he was taken in by Patten.

Patten and Morina attended Paulsboro High School at the same time. Both were on the wrestling team, winning titles in 1976.

The deli closed last August. At one point, it was valued at more than $100 million.

Patten and Coker Sr., both residents of North Carolina, pleaded not guilty in October. A lawyer for Coker Jr., who lived in Hong Kong at the time of the charges, couldn’t be immediately identified.

Hometown became infamous when hedge fund legend David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital highlighted the company in an April 2021 letter to investors as an example of irrational exuberance in the market.

“The pastrami must be amazing,” Einhorn observed.

Authorities say the trio’s trading in the company — which had sales of less than $20,000 in 2019 — pushed the shares above $13, resulting in the nine-figure market capitalization. According to prosecutors, the men used the same method to drive up the shares of E-Waste.

The federal Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission had filed separate complaints.