Lawyer linked to a delicatessen owner involved in securities scams

A now-disqualified attorney who pleaded guilty to federal crimes related to business scams appears as a lawyer in the first financial documents filed by a New Jersey firm whose valuation of his shares has risen to $ 100 million or more despite owning only a small business. charcuterie.

The evocative, Gregg Jaclin, was copied in communications filed by charcuterie owner Hometown International with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2015 and 2016, according to records.

They include the first document submitted by Hometown to the SEC that is publicly available.

In June 2020, Jaclin pleaded guilty to criminal charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Separately, in a related case, the SEC in 2019 issued a final judgment against him “for executing a fraudulent shell factory scheme by which fake companies were made public and sold for profit,” he noted. year a press release.

The companies involved in this conduct, none of which belonged to Hometown International, joined Nevada with the help of Jaclin, who was dismissed in New Jersey last October for his actions.

Records show that Hometown International, despite having its only business in southern New Jersey, incorporated into Nevada.

In a 2015 letter to Hometown International, SEC staff wrote, “We believe you are a parent company.”

Hometown International and its executives have not been charged by the SEC or other government authorities with wrongdoing.

Shares of Hometown International, which are listed on the over-the-counter market, fell about 33% in the hours after Friday morning trading. A day earlier, CNBC had published articles about the company’s unusually high market capitalization, which was first stated in a letter sent to clients by hedge fund manager David Einhorn.

“The pastrami must be amazing,” Einhorn joked in his letter.

Stock prices recovered significantly during the day. Hometown shares closed at $ 12.99 per share on Friday, down 3.78% from the previous day.

Jaclin, who is still serving a three-year supervised release sentence for his criminal case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Neither did other figures related to Hometown International, including its top corporate executives and current attorney, and who controls the company’s voice message, when CNBC contacted them.

Paul Morina is the President and CEO of Hometown International, owner of Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey.

Morina is also the principal and coach of the renowned Paulsboro High School wrestling team. SEC documents show it had 1.5 million shares in the hometown, with guarantees of 30 million more shares.

The vice president and secretary of her hometown is Christine Lindenmuth, a mathematics teacher and administrator at the same institute.

Lindenmuth’s home address appears as the Hometown International postal address.

The biographies of Morina and Lindenmuth in SEC applications do not mention any prior experience of any of them in the food service industry, a publicly traded corporation, or the financial industry.

Hometown charcuterie had sales of only $ 35,000 or so over the past two fiscal years. The charcuterie closed from mid-March to early September last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite this, its nearly 8 million shares in common stock were recently traded at levels of nearly $ 14 per share, which gave it a market capitalization of over $ 100 million.

A woman who answered the phone Friday at the delicatessen asked, “Do you want to place an order?”

He then hung up after the caller identified himself as a journalist and said he wanted to talk to someone about Hometown International.

In SEC files, Homeland is blunt about its business prospects.

“Our financial situation raises doubts about whether we will continue as an ongoing company.” says the company in a presentation.

The company suggests that it needs to find an additional acquisition or financing target to sustain operations.

“Future success depends largely on management’s ability to locate and attract a suitable acquisition,” Hometown said in a presentation last year.

Hometown International’s major shareholders also include entities in Hong Kong and Macao, China, a mecca for high net worth players.

Hometown President Peter Coker Jr. is listed as the president of a hometown investor who has also operated a luxury hotel in Macau known as The 13.

This hotel boasts a fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantoms available as limousines for hotel guests. Online booking sites indicate that all 13 hotels do not currently accept bookings.

Coker’s father, Peter Coker Sr., is listed on the financial statements as another key shareholder in his hometown.

The former Coker, who lives in North Carolina, is listed in the SEC section that owns 63,334 shares in common stock in Hometown International, with guarantees of an additional 1.26 million shares.

The senior Coker has been identified in other documents filed by the SEC as the founder and managing director of Tryon Capital Ventures, a North Carolina entity. Hometown pays Tryon $ 15,000 a month under a consulting agreement.

“We plan to extend the term of the consulting deal with Tryon for an additional period of one year,” Hometown’s annual report says.

In 2019, an investor named W. Robert Bizzell sued Peter Coker Sr. and other management partners of an entity called Tryon Capital LLC in North Carolina Business Court, according to records.

The lawsuit, among other things, involved fraud in motivation and constructive fraud in connection with obtaining Bizzell’s investment in another entity linked to Coker Sr., SSAC Capital. He also said Bizzell’s money was earmarked to help expand a specialized retail operation for the southern Chapel Hill season.

Bizzell’s lawsuit said the defendants “deviated” from their stated use of their money, which amounted to hundreds and thousands of dollars and turned their interest as debtors into equity.

Coker Sr. and the other defendants denied Bizzell’s allegations.

A file in August 2020 indicated that the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed by Bizzell with prejudice, which is normal when the parties resolve civil lawsuits out of court.

John Marshall, Bizzell’s attorney, declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. He said he was bound by the terms of a confidentiality provision in the settlement agreement.

Coker Sr. did not return requests for comments. A lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Public records show that Coker Sr. he lived in Macungie, Pennsylvania.

In 1992, the nearby Allentown newspaper The Morning Call published an article stating that American Express Bank, in a bankruptcy case filed by Peter Coker, claimed that it had “fraudulently transmitted hundreds of thousands of dollars. of their assets to thwart their fundraising efforts by nearly $ 900,000. “

According to the newspaper, according to newspapers, American Express had said that Coker “is a solvent debtor who wants to appear insolvent.”