SEC v. James T. Patten, Peter L. Coker Sr. and Peter L. Coker Jr. (reverse merger schemes, 2022)

Alleged — pending

These are allegations. SEC has filed an action; nothing in it has been proven, and the respondents have not been found liable. Everything described on this page is what the regulator alleges, not what a court has found. See our editorial policy.

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In September 2022 the SEC sued James Patten and Peter Coker Sr. and Jr. in New Jersey, alleging they took control of the shares of Hometown International, a deli with under $40,000 of revenue, and shell E-Waste Corp., inflated prices by manipulative trading and used reverse mergers to plan to dump their shares. Criminal charges were announced in parallel. These are allegations.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on September 27, 2022 (litigation release 25526) a complaint filed on September 26, 2022 in the District of New Jersey.

The SEC alleges the three took control of the outstanding shares of Hometown International and E-Waste Corp., lifted Hometown's price from about $1 in October 2019 to nearly $14 by April 2021, a market value near $100 million, through manipulative trading, and used both companies to acquire private businesses in reverse mergers with the intent to sell their shares at inflated prices. News coverage of the inflated prices appeared before they could profit. All three are charged under Section 17(a)(1) and (3), Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5(a) and (c); Patten under Section 9(a)(1), with the Cokers accused of aiding and abetting. The SEC seeks injunctions, disgorgement, penalties and penny-stock bars, and an officer-director bar against Coker Jr. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced parallel criminal charges. These are allegations in a pending case.

This library tags the matter as reverse merger schemes and price manipulation. The record's defendant field held only "James T. Patten, et al."

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Reverse merger schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Price manipulation — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2022-09-27 Litigation release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC litigation release

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.