American arrested in Phuket on US stock manipulation charges

The arrest was announced by the CSD today (Jan 14). In a publication on the CSD’s official Facebook page the suspect is named as "Mr Peter Jr", but the details of the case clearly indicate that the man is Peter Coker Jr who made headlines in the US media last year in connection to what CNBC called a “100 million USD New Jersey deli scheme”.

Mr Coker was wanted on a US arrest warrant and listed on the Interpol’s red list since late last year. His father Peter Coker Sr and business partner James Patten had been arrested in the USA before that.

According to the announcement by the US Attorney’s Office on Sept 26 last year, Mr Coker Sr, Mr Coker Jr and Mr Patten had been charged “in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices”.

Patten had been additionally charged with “four counts of manipulation of securities, four counts of wire fraud, and one count of money laundering”.

American prosecutors believe that the trio artificially inflated the market price of Hometown International Inc at OTC Link Alternative Trading System up to 100mn USD despite the fact it had only a “small-town New Jersey deli to its name”. A similar trick was played with securities of E-Waste Corp, also traded at OTC Markteplace in the US.

“From 2014 through September 2022, Patten, Coker Sr, and Coker Jr conspired to enrich themselves through a scheme to manipulate securities prices via a pattern of coordinated trading, which injected inaccurate information into the marketplace, creating false impressions of supply and demand for these securities,” the US Attorney’s Office said in Sept 26 statement.

“Patten, Coker Sr, and Coker Jr took steps to gain control of both entities’ [Hometown International Inc and E-Waste Corp] management and stock with the ultimate intention of entering reverse mergers, a transaction through which an existing public company merges with a private operating company. A successful reverse merger would allow the defendants to sell shares of each entity at a significant profit,” American authorities explained further.

The scheme artificially inflated Hometown International’s stock by 939% and E-Waste’s stock by 19,900%, illegally enriching the three suspects.

According to the US laws, securities fraud and manipulation of securities prices counts carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a 5mn USD fine.

Conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices are punishable with up to five years in prison and a 250,000 USD fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense whichever is greatest.

Mr Cocker Jr – the only of the trio who was not arrested in the USA last year – fled to Thailand, but the US authorities managed to track him down. Royal Thai Police did not reveal how it had been done.

The FBI representatives in Bangkok then contacted their Thai colleagues who arrested the suspect in Phuket on Jan 11. It is also unclear what assitance (if any) was provided by local Phuket polce, as none of Phuket official information channels reported the case yet.