The Securities and Exchange Commission charged three men on Monday with artificially inflating the share price of a company that's only asset was a deli in suburban New Jersey.
The deli charged $8.25 for cheesesteaks.
The SEC and federal prosecutors in New Jersey have brought criminal charges against the Coker family.
The SEC and federal prosecutors said in statements Monday that the three men took control of the outstanding shares of the deli operator and inflated the company's share prices through trading schemes.
The defendants were accused of using the two entities to snap up private companies and dump their shares at grossly inflated prices.
The SEC said that the three would not have been able to profit from the inflated stock prices if the scheme had been allowed to go forward.
Coker and Coker Jr. were charged with aiding and abetting those violations.
Three people were charged with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices.
A Forbes request for comment was not immediately responded to by the company.
The two men made an initial appearance in a North Carolina court on Monday. According to federal prosecutors, Coker Jr. is still on the run.
A deli located in the Philadelphia suburb of Paulsboro, New Jersey, came under scrutiny last year after it was reported that it only pulled in $13,000 in annual sales. The restaurant was opened by a friend and his business partner who were unaware of the scheme. Some experts said there was evidence of stock manipulation after the company's initial public offering. In June of this year, your hometown deli closed after eight years in business.
If the defendants are found guilty of the securities fraud charges, they can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The SEC wants to prevent the three defendants from participating in penny stock offerings and bar Coker Jr. from serving as an officer or director of a public company.
The New Jersey Deli was once worth over 100 million dollars.
The $113 million deli is a mystery.
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