$100 million New Jersey deli fraud: father and son sentenced

CAMDEN, N.J. —One of the defendants in the infamous $100 million New Jersey deli case was brutally attacked while in a Thai prison awaiting extradition in early 2023, his attorney said at his sentencing for securities fraud in New Jersey federal court on Tuesday.

The defendant, Peter Coker Jr., was set upon by as many as 10 fellow inmates in the Thai lock-up, his lawyer said. Coker Jr. was being held there after police found him in Thailand while under indictment in the United States for the securities fraud scheme involving the deli owner and a related shell company

Coker Jr. was sentenced to 40 months in prison. With credit for time served, he owes about 12 months locked up. But he could be released sooner than that given how federal inmates are granted time off for good conduct.

Earlier Tuesday, the 56-year-old’s father, North Carolina businessman Peter Coker Sr., was sentenced to six months in jail, to be followed by six months of home confinement, for his role in the case.

The Cokers and a third man, James Patten, admitted to the scheme in orchestrated the fraudulent inflation of the share price of two companies to better position them for mergers with private firms.

One of the companies, Hometown International, ended up having a market capitalization of more than $100 million despite owning just a small money-losing deli in South Jersey.

The other company, E-Waste, had an even larger market cap, despite having no business operations.

Coker Jr.’s lawyer, John Azzarello, cited his time in the Thai prison and in the 26 or so months he has served in an Essex County jail, in asking a judge to sentence him to effectively time served, or only a few months more.

Azzarello called those conditions in both jails “inhumane.”

Azzarello also detailed how Coker Jr. was suffering from severe cirrhosis of the liver as the result of alcohol abuse — “a bottle of whiskey a day” — before he was arrested in Thailand.

He said Coker Jr. had been hospitalized several times for his condition, and that doctors were considering doing a liver transplant.

Coker Jr., speaking to Judge Christine O’Hearn in U.S. District Court in Camden, said, “This crime has changed me profoundly.”

“The assault and the horrors I experienced in Bangkok prison, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy,” Coker Jr. said, wearing a yellow one-piece jailhouse uniform.

“It was the lowest point in my life.”

He also expressed regret for his role in the scheme, which involved his father and another man.

“It’s very important to me that your honor and my parents know I wish I could go back,” and not commit the crime, Coker Jr. said.

“It kills me, every time I think about it, how my actions affected my parents,” he said.

“My parents should have never been associated with this abhorrent crime,” Coker Jr. said.

“My greed destroyed us both.”

Coker Jr. faces deportation after he serves his sentence. He renounced his U.S….