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
NEWARK, N.J. – A former fugitive within the securities fraud case involving a Latest Jersey deli company once valued at $100 million renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2019, prosecutors revealed Thursday as they asked a judge to disclaim him bail.
Peter Coker Jr. “poses a serious risk of flight, and … there aren’t any conditions or combination thereof that may assure his appearance at future proceedings,” said the letter by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to federal Magistrate Judge Edward Kiel.
In the identical letter, prosecutors said Coker Jr. had “stood to make tens of tens of millions of dollars” from a hoped-for reverse merger of the deli company, which the goal of the “complex, long-term fraud’ spanning not less than seven years that grossly inflated its stock price.
“And the one reason that the Defendant and his co-conspirators were unable to realize their ultimate objective of stepping into a reverse merger, which might have allowed for an enormous payout, was due to negative news articles that exposed their fraud,” the letter to Kiel said.
CNBC in 2021 published several dozen articles that exposed eyebrow-raising consulting agreements, troubled legal histories, and other issues related to people connected to the deli company.
In their very own filing Thursday, Coker Jr.’s defense said the Hong Kong businessman relinquished American citizenship “primarily for economic reasons and in recognition of his personal and skilled life.”
Coker Jr., who was extradited from Thailand last week and kept in jail since then, was scheduled to look in Newark federal court on Thursday afternoon for a detention hearing within the case, where his father Peter Coker Sr. and a 3rd man are also charged.
But he was never brought from a holding area to the courtroom, where his parents were waiting.
As a substitute, there was a two-hour delay in the beginning of the hearing that ensued after the judge, a prosecutor and Coker Jr.’s defense lawyers for the primary time learned that there’s a hold on him from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Such a detainer is standard when a non-citizen is extradited to face criminal charges within the U.S.
In the course of the delay, Coker Jr.’s lawyers met with him and talked to the prosecutor.
Kiel eventually took the bench and commenced the hearing. Coker Jr.’s lawyers told him told the judge that they’ll seek an attorney to represent him in reference to the ICE detainer.
The ICE hold, which was lodged when Coker Jr. landed at JFK International Airport in Latest York last week, could keep Coker Jr. in jail even when he’s granted bail within the criminal case.
Of their letter searching for Coker Jr.’s detention, prosecutors cited his access to funds overseas, his citizenship from one other country, his three a long time living abroad in Hong Kong, and the 20-year maximum possible criminal sentence he faces if convicted as reasons to fear he’ll flee the fees.
“No evidence is more telling than a defendant’s own words,” prosecutors wrote.
They cited Coker Jr.’s legal statement on June 5, 2019, saying, “While I used to be born and raised within the U.S., I moved to Hong Kong in July, 1992 for profession reasons and have established my roots and extensive social and family ties here. I haven’t any intention to return to live or work within the U.S., and have due to this fact decided to surrender my U.S. nationality.”
Attorneys for Coker Jr. at his arraignment last week argued he was willing to place up all the cash he has, about $4 million, and his parents’ North Carolina home as collateral to secure his release on bond within the case.
Coker Jr., Coker Sr. and James Patten were charged in an indictment on Sept. 26 with a scheme artificially boost the costs of publicly traded stocks of Hometown International, and a related shell company, E-Waste, to extend their attractiveness as merger partners for personal corporations.
Peter Coker Sr. and his wife Susan Coker at U.S. District Court in Newark, Latest Jersey, March 15, 2023.
Dan Mangan | CNBC
While the elder Coker and Patten were arrested in North Carolina after which released on bonds of $100,000 each, Coker Jr. was a fugitive for months before being found and arrested in a resort area of Thailand by police there in January.
Coker Jr. had traveled there on a passport from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis, where he has citizenship.
In their very own letter to Kiel on Thursday, Coker Jr.’s attorneys argued he remained in Phuket, Thailand, after learning of his indictment because he was too sick to travel.
Coker Jr. claimed he was receiving medical attention for cirrhosis of his liver and hypoxemia prior to his arrest.
“Mr. Coker’s appearance in the US would have likely occurred sooner if not for serious health issues he faced within the period following the unsealing of the indictment against him,” his attorneys argued within the filing.
“Mr. Coker prioritized searching for medical treatment in his area people of Thailand moderately than immediately surrendering to authorities and risking the likelihood that he could be transported by plane to the US against his doctor’s advice.”
The indictment alleges that because of this of the scheme, the stock price of Hometown, which owned only a small, money-losing shop dubbed Your Hometown Deli, rose greater than 900% because of this of the alleged scheme. E-Waste’s shares skyrocketed by almost 20,000%. The deli, which served Italian subs and cheesesteaks in Paulsboro, a small Latest Jersey town across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, has since closed.
Each corporations publicly disavowed their massive market valuations after CNBC revealed legal issues surrounding people connected to the businesses, including Coker Sr.
The younger Coker served for a while as Hometown International’s chairman.
Gabrielle Fonrouge reported from Newark and Dan Mangan reported from Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
