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A former fugitive wanted on criminal stock manipulation charges related to a money-losing Latest Jersey deli once valued at $100 million has agreed to be extradited from Thailand to the US, Thai authorities said.
Peter Coker Jr., 54, was arrested last week by Thai police within the resort area of Phuket, greater than three months after he, his father, Peter Coker Sr., and an associate, James Patten, were indicted in Latest Jersey federal court.
The 12-count criticism alleges financial crimes related to 2 publicly traded corporations, Hometown International, which owned only a modest, now-closed deli in Paulsboro, Latest Jersey, and E-Waste, a shell company that had no assets.
Coker Jr., an American who most recently was known to be living and dealing as a businessman in Hong Kong, is being held in a Bangkok jail for the subsequent several weeks before his expected extradition, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Thai police, in a press release, said Coker Jr. entered the country with a passport issued by the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis. That nation sells citizenship in exchange for investments there, the AP noted.
“Mr. Coker Jr. voluntarily consented to be extradited to the U.S., which has simplified the court’s legal process,” Teerat Limpayaraya, a prosecutor in Thailand’s Attorney General’s office, told the AP.
“We’ve got to finish a 30-day waiting period as required by Thai law before sending him back,” said Teerat.
The prosecutor said also told the AP that Coker Jr. “was visibly frail when he was taken in and told us that he needs medical treatment for his liver disease.,”
“We imagine that he entered Thailand with a possible plan to settle here,” Teerat said.
U.S. prosecutors accuse the Cokers and Patten of a scheme to bid up the worth of shares of Hometown International and E-Waste, each of which had high market capitalizations despite holding little if any assets of value, to make them more attractive to personal firms as merger candidates. Each corporations later found merger partners.
Coker Jr. had served as chairman of Hometown International.
While Pattan and Coker Sr., have made court appearances since their arrest, Coker Jr. was believed to be at large until his arrest last week.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Latest Jersey, which is prosecuting the case, confirmed Coker Jr.’s apprehension in Thailand, but declined to comment further.