New Jersey deli fraudsters fail to pay millions in restitution

That’s a big deli bill that can be skipped without paying.

A federal judge, Peter Coker Sr. and is angrier than a freshly brewed cup of coffee at his son Peter Coker Jr.’s failure to pay millions of dollars. return For their starring role in the infamous $100 million New Jersey deli stock scam.

Coker inmates owe a total of $5.56 million to victims of fraud that involved illegally inflating the stock prices of two publicly traded companies, making them attractive candidates for a merger.

The scheme led to one of the companies, then known as Hometown International, having a market value of more than $100 million despite owning only a small, money-losing deli in the rough-and-tumble South Jersey town of Paulsboro.

Shares of the other company, then known as E-Waste, were at one point worth even more on paper, despite having no significant assets.

Judge Christine O’Hearn issued a stern order against Cokers on Monday“It appears…despite having significant liquid assets at the time of sentencing, both Defendants failed to comply with the restitution deadlines established by the Court.”

“The Court finds that Defendants intentionally failed to make payments, perhaps in an effort to avoid doing so and/or to distribute or transfer assets,” O’Hearn wrote in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.

Peter Coker Sr., of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, owed a refund of his first installment of $2.5 million within 30 days of Aug. 11, according to an order O’Hearn filed in August.

Coker Jr., a businessman formerly living in Hong Kong, was due the first installment of $1.5 million within 30 days from the same date.

Cokers and the third defendant, James Patten, who pleaded guilty in the case, will be jointly liable for a total of $5.56 million in damages. Patten has not yet been convicted; therefore he does not need to start paying compensation at this time.

Retail investors owe $178,849 in total compensation. He owes $3.1 million and $2.3 million in compensation to the investment arms of Duke and Vanderbilt universities, respectively.

In his order Monday, O’Hearn asked prosecutors and Cokers’ attorneys to respond within two weeks to questions about the failure to pay restitution so far.

The judge told them to “immediately take all necessary steps to ensure payment of the compensation amounts previously ordered.”

One possible obstacle to getting money from Peter Coker Jr. is that the 57-year-old is no longer in prison or even in the United States.

Coker Jr. He renounced his US citizenship years ago.

On Oct. 16, one day after his release from prison, he returned to St. Louis, the Caribbean country where he holds citizenship, according to a letter from his lawyer to O’Hearn. Kitts and Nevis.

His father, Peter Coker Sr., 83, is scheduled to be released Dec. 8 from a North Carolina reentry facility run by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, following his release Tuesday from a prison in Butner, North Carolina.

Coker Sr.’s attorney, Zach Intrater, in a letter to O’Hearn last week.He disputed the idea that he owed any payment of compensation while he was still in prison.

Intrater, who did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment, said in his letter that “Mr. Coker, Sr. does not intend to avoid his responsibilities under the amended order” and that he “will begin making the necessary payments for his compensation.”

Given his understanding of the restitution order, Coker Sr. will pay at least $1,000 on Dec. 17, the attorney said.

“If this is a misreading of the Court’s Amended Order, then the fault lies not with my client but with the undersigned attorney,” Intrater wrote.

In a sharp footnote in his order on Monday, O’Hearn rejected Intrater’s reading of the extradition order.

“The Court cannot understand Counsel’s stated interpretation of the Order,” O’Hearn wrote.

“Beyond the terms stated, it was clear that such monies must be paid immediately,” the judge wrote. “In fact, prior discussions and offers had been made by counsel for an immediate down payment, albeit in a much smaller amount, with subsequent installments, which the Court refused to accept.”

Both Cokers pleaded guilty O’Hearn was previously indicted last December on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

In May, O’Hearn sentenced the elder Coker to six months in prison and Coker Jr. to 40 months.

The younger Coker was released last month because he was compensated for the more than two years he spent locked up in a New Jersey prison before sentencing.

Coker Jr.’s attorney, John Azzarello A letter to the judge on ThursdayCoker Jr. He said that his statement about him ended with the sentencing, that he had no contact with the fraudster since the sentencing, and that “we do not know where Mr. Çoker Jr. is now.”

“Mr. Coker Jr. also has an outstanding bill for legal services that remain unpaid to date,” Azzarello wrote.

Azzarello did not respond to requests for comment.

CNBC also requested comment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey, which prosecuted Cokers and Patten.