We’ll have what they’re having.
A mysterious $100 million company that owns just one tiny New Jersey deli is linked in multiple ways to another odd company, E-Waste Corp.
E-Waste’s stock, like that of deli owner Hometown International, has soared in the past year, also giving it market capitalization of more than $100 million earlier this month. This surge happened despite E-Waste having no significant ongoing business, records show.
Filings also indicate that Hometown International lent E-Waste $150,000 late last year. The deli was closed for more than five months last year due to the Covid pandemic.
And like Hometown International’s CEO, who is a New Jersey high school principal and head wrestling coach, E-Waste CEO John Rollo recently had a job that is unusual for the head of a company that on paper is worth tens of millions of dollars. He was a patient transporter at a northern New Jersey hospital and still apparently works in the same health-care system.
The E-Waste CEO’s career history is full of other surprising detours. Rollo, 66, who did not return a call seeking comment, previously won two Grammy awards during his extensive career as a recording engineer and producer on albums by artists such as The Kinks, Joe Cocker, Whitney Houston, Kool the Gang and Quiet Riot, according to records.
He also spent nearly 18 years as vice president for operations at Comus International, a New Jersey-based switching and sensor manufacturer. Rollo was fired from Comus in 2019, according to a lawsuit he filed that year in connection with his termination.
The connections between E-Waste and Hometown International — whose Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro had combined sales of only about $35,000 in the past two years — include the same Hong Kong entity being their biggest shareholders, similar consulting contracts with companies controlled by investors and their current use of the same New York law firm.
And, just like early financial filings by Hometown International, E-Waste’s initial regulatory filings show the involvement of a lawyer who later was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly involvement in fraudulent schemes involving the creation of companies.
The lawyer for E-Waste was a different one from the one initially used by Hometown International — Hometown’s previous lawyer, unlike E-Waste’s, was charged and convicted of related federal crimes.
Another similarity between the companies is the fact that no one associated with them has returned calls or emails from CNBC.
A key figure involved in both companies is Peter Coker Sr., a 78-year-old North Carolina businessman whose son, Peter Coker Jr., is chairman of Hometown International.
The younger Coker is executive chairman of South Shore Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong company, which owns a financially troubled hotel in Macau, China: The 13.
That uber-luxurious property’s initial investors included Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, Fidelity International, and Omega Advisors. The 13’s website indicates it has been closed since Feb. 15, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Records show that Coker Sr. is an investor in Hometown International, as is a company of his, Europa Capital.
The largest shareholders in Hometown International include three separate entities in Hong Kong, which all share the same address, and four separate entities in Macau, which likewise all have the same address there.
Paul Morina, the deli owner’s CEO and the principal and wrestling coach for the local high school, is also a major shareholder in Hometown.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/100-million-new-jersey-deli-linked-to-shell-company-e-waste.html