$100 million NJ deli defendant hires lawyer who repped Martin Shkreli

Peter Coker Sr., one of many defendants within the case of the so-called $100 million New Jersey deli, employed a lawyer who represented “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, in line with a brand new court docket submitting Tuesday.

Coker Sr. employed Marc Agnifilo to signify him in his case towards the Securities and Alternate Fee, which sued him and two different males, together with his son, for alleged market manipulation.

The Division of Justice additionally criminally charged the lads — Coker Sr., Peter Coker Jr. and James Patten — with a number of counts, together with securities fraud, conspiracy and cash laundering over an alleged scheme to pump up the worth of a small, publicly traded firm that had only a small city New Jersey deli to its title.

The corporate, Hometown Worldwide, reached an eye-popping $100 million valuation final 12 months in an over-the-counter market even if the deli, the now-closed Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, N.J., making lower than $40,000 in annual gross sales.

Agnifilo, a New York-based former federal prosecutor, didn’t instantly return a name from CNBC looking for remark. Along with representing Shkreli, he has labored for convicted intercourse felony and former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, NXIVM cult chief Keith Raniere and a Russian financial institution that was sanctioned over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Shkreli, a former prescribed drugs government who was launched from jail earlier this 12 months, was convicted of securities fraud in 2017 and was sentenced in 2018.

Authorities arrested Coker Sr. and Patten final week in North Carolina, and so they have been conditionally launched. Their case is slated to be transferred to a federal court docket in New Jersey. Prosecutors needed to maintain Coker Sr., 80, detained. Coker Jr. of Hong Kong is taken into account at giant.