New Jersey deli scammer James Patten sentencing doc filed

Federal prosecutors are recommending a comparatively mild jail sentence for a person who pleaded responsible to securities fraud within the infamous $100 million New Jersey deli inventory manipulation case — and a few of their causes for doing so are hidden.

The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for New Jersey, in a brand new court docket submitting, conceded that the sentencing pointers recommend a jail time period between 70 and 87 months for the defendant, James Patten.

However the workplace is urging U.S. District Courtroom Choose Christine O’Hearn to ship the 65-year-old Patten to jail for a time period between 12 and 18 months when she sentences him in Camden on July 21. He is been free awaiting sentencing since he pleaded responsible in late 2023.

Prosecutors, in a model of that submission made public at CNBC’s request, cited federal felony legislation, which requires avoiding “unwarranted sentence disparities amongst defendants with comparable information who’ve been discovered responsible of comparable conduct.”

Prosecutors famous that the opposite males who beforehand pleaded responsible in the identical scheme, father-and-son Peter Coker Sr. and Peter Coker Jr., acquired jail phrases of six months and 40 months, respectively.

“A sentence extra extreme than his co-defendants’, significantly Coker, Sr.’s, can be unfair,” the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned within the submitting.

Each Cokers have since served their sentences for the scheme, which artificially boosted the inventory worth of two thinly traded firms to make them extra enticing candidates for reverse mergers.

One of many firms, Hometown Worldwide, owned only one small, unprofitable deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey — Your Hometown Deli — which was run by Patten’s good friend, a highschool wrestling coach, who has not been accused of wrongdoing. Hometown’s market capitalization topped $100 million at one level.

The opposite firm whose shares had been manipulated within the scheme, E-Waste, had an excellent greater market cap sooner or later, regardless of being nothing greater than a shell firm.

Three pages of the 11-page sentencing submission submitting by prosecutors are blacked out.

These pages clarify why prosecutors imagine O’Hearn ought to grant the disgraced former stockbroker Patten a steep downward departure from advisory sentencing pointers.

Sentencing submissions will not be public in New Jersey federal court docket except a request is made to make them public.

Courtroom guidelines say that earlier than a submission is made public, prosecutors and legal professionals for the defendant shall confer to find out what “personal info ought to be redacted.”

“Presumptively Non-Public Info contains” names of victims, witnesses, uncharged people and “info concerning cooperation by the defendant and others that was not beforehand disclosed,” the foundations state.

It additionally contains “delicate private info in regards to the defendant” akin to medical and psychological stories.

The character of the redacted personal info just isn’t revealed anyplace within the submitting that’s public.

One motive that prosecutors imagine Patten deserves jail time is his felony report, in keeping with a public part of the submission.

The North Carolina resident was convicted of mail fraud in 2010 and sentenced to 27 months in jail.

“He was launched in 2012, roughly two years earlier than the start of this conspiracy,” prosecutors wrote. “A jail sentence is important as a result of his return to fraud so quickly after spending roughly two years in jail is troubling.”

CNBC has requested the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace and Patten’s lawyer for touch upon the submission.

Whereas Hometown Worldwide and E-Waste had been later concerned in reverse mergers, traders misplaced what has been estimated to be practically $5 million, which included consulting charges paid to the Cokers and Patten, prosecutors famous of their submitting.

“Patten participated in a severe crime — a fraud scheme that resulted in losses of practically $5,000,000 and he performed an essential position in that scheme,” prosecutors wrote in a bit of the submitting that’s public.

“However the Pointers account for that already, and the Courtroom ought to acknowledge that Patten was performing as an worker of Coker, Sr. and at his route,” the submitting mentioned.

The filings additionally mentioned that there are “no less than two different potential defendants” who “will face no authorized penalties for his or her actions.”