James Patten leaves U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey after his sentencing hearing on July 21, 2026.
Dan Mangan | CNBC
James Patten, who played a key role in a brazen stock-price manipulation scheme that led to a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of $100 million and a loss-making small New Jersey deli, was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in prison.
Patten, 67, asked Judge Christine O’Hern to impose a non-prison sentence during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey.
But O’Hearn said Patten, a North Carolina resident, deserved to be sent back to prison for his role in the deli stock scam, repeatedly citing Patten’s previous federal fraud convictions and 27-month prison sentence.
The judge noted that Patten activated the deli scheme while he was on supervised release for a criminal record, less than two years after his release, and while he was still owed restitution in the original case.
“This was his idea,” O’Hearn said.
Mr. Patten, a former stockbroker, is the last of three defendants sentenced in the deli-related securities fraud case.
“I stand before you today to apologize and take full responsibility for my actions,” Patten told the judge, before adding that he “deeply regrets” the impact his crimes have had on his family and the young men he coaches in wrestling.
“There’s no excuse,” he said.
“I have no comment,” Patten told CNBC as she left the courtroom with her partner and three sisters.
In addition to his 21-month prison sentence, Patten must serve three years of supervised release and will be liable for approximately $5 million in restitution.
Patten’s co-conspirators, Peter Coker Sr. and Peter Coker Jr., are already serving six and 40 months in prison, respectively.
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey had asked O’Hearn to sentence Patten to 12 to 18 months in prison.
Messrs. Patten and Coker admitted to conspiring to inflate the stock price of Hometown International, the company that owns Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey, and the stock price of E-Waste, a shell company, through manipulated trades.
As a result, the stock prices of Hometown and EWAST were artificially inflated by 939% and 19,900%, respectively, prosecutors said.
The purpose of the plan was to make both companies more attractive candidates for a reverse merger with a private company wishing to go public.
In 2014, Patten suggested forming Hometown as an umbrella company to former high school wrestling teammate Paul Molina, who at the time was talking with someone else about opening a deli in Paulsboro. Authorities said Molina and the other deli owner had no knowledge of Patten’s plan to manipulate Hometown stock.
Molina is a high school principal and a famous wrestling coach.
The charges against Patten and the Cokers were filed in September 2022, more than a year after CNBC detailed a series of questionable relationships between Hometown and E-Waste, Patten’s previous criminal and civil court matters, matters with Coker Sr., and consulting contracts with companies that benefited the couple. Your Hometown Deli closed in early 2022.
CNBC’s reporting began with a letter from hedge fund manager David Einhorn to clients in April 2021 that highlighted Hometown International’s odd stock price given its extremely poor single asset: deli.
“The pastrami must be amazing,” Einhorn wrote in the letter.
