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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton allegedly fled his home with his wife to avoid being served a subpoena, according to a sworn affidavit.
The subpoena ordered the Republican AG to appear and testify in a civil lawsuit in which multiple Texas-based nonprofits want to resume helping pregnant residents obtain abortions in other states.
A federal judge quashed the subpoena.
Paxton on Twitter claimed he was showing concern for his family, and later said the process server “is lucky this situation did not escalate further.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leaves the U.S. Supreme Court following arguments over a challenge to a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks in Washington, U.S., November 1, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home to avoid being served a subpoena Monday in a federal lawsuit filed by groups seeking to help Texans receive out-of-state abortions, court filings show.
Paxton ran from the garage of his home in McKinney, Texas, into a truck driven by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, while refusing to accept the documents from a process server, according to an affidavit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Austin.

The Paxtons drove away without taking the documents, which were left on the ground by the house, process server Ernesto Martin Herrera wrote in the sworn affidavit.
Federal Judge Robert Pitman granted a motion Tuesday to quash the subpoena for Paxton’s testimony. Paxton had argued the subpoena was unwarranted because “none of the requisites for making, let alone enforcing, such a demand have been satisfied.”
In a statement later Tuesday, Paxton accused the server of posing a threat by charging at him and yelling “unintelligibly.”
The AG also said that Herrera is “lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force,” after noting that many Texans keep guns for protection.
The subpoena had ordered Paxton, a Republican, to testify in a hearing Tuesday morning in a civil lawsuit in which multiple Texas-based nonprofits want to resume helping pregnant residents obtain abortions in other states. That includes paying for out-of-state abortion providers and providing financial aid to those seeking abortions, as well as providing interstate travel to those providers.

The nonprofits say their abortion-assisting activities had ceased shortly before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had enshrined the federal right to abortion for decades, in a 5-4 vote in June. The high court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization also threw out another case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which had largely upheld the right to an abortion established by Roe.
Paxton in a pair of tweets late Monday night claimed he was showing concern for his family and attacked the media for reporting on the affidavit, without denying the substance of the document.
“This is a ridiculous waste of time and the media should be ashamed of themselves,” Paxton tweeted in response to a Texas Tribune article.
“All across the country, conservatives have faced threats to their safety — many threats that received scant coverage or condemnation from the mainstream media,” his tweet said.
“It’s clear that the media wants to drum up another controversy involving my work as Attorney General, so they’re attacking me for having the audacity to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family,” he said in a second tweet.
Herrera’s affidavit said that he arrived at Paxton’s house Monday at 8:28 a.m. and was greeted at the front door by a woman who identified herself as Angela. When he told her that he was trying to deliver the subpoenas to Ken Paxton, she told him that the AG was on the phone.
Herrera, who said he recognized Ken Paxton inside the house through glass on the door, offered to wait for him. Angela replied that Paxton “was in a hurry to leave,” according to Herrera, who observed a black Chevy truck in the driveway and then saw another car arrive there.
At about 9:40 a.m., Herrera said he saw Paxton exiting his garage. Herrera walked up the driveway toward Paxton and called out his name, at which point “he turned around and RAN back inside the house through the same door in the garage.”
Minutes later, Angela came out to the truck and opened both the driver-side door and the door behind it, Herrera wrote. A few minutes after she started the truck, “I saw Mr. Paxton RAN from the door inside the garage towards the rear door behind the driver side,” Herrera wrote.
“I approached the truck, and loudly called him by his name and stated that I had court documents for him. Mr. Paxton ignored me and kept heading for the truck. After determining that Mr. Paxton was not going to take the Subpoenas from my hand, I stated that I was serving him with legal documents and was leaving them on the ground where he could get them,” Herrera wrote.
“I then placed the documents on the ground beside the truck. Service was completed at 9:50 am. He got in the truck leaving the documents on the ground, and then both vehicles left,” he wrote.
Paxton’s statement Tuesday decried the episode surrounding the subpoena as a “made-up controversy” and a “shameless stunt from my political opponents—a stunt that a federal judge dismissed today by quashing the subpoena.”
“Here are the facts: a strange man came onto my property at home, yelled unintelligibly, and charged toward me. I perceived this person to be a threat because he was neither honest nor upfront about his intentions,” Paxton’s statement said.
The AG said he takes multiple safety precautions at home “in light of the constant threats against me.” He noted that many others in Texas “also exercise their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves and their families.”
“Given that this suspicious and erratic man charged me on my private property, he is lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force,” Paxton said. “As leaders across America, from elected officials to Supreme Court Justices, face unprecedent threats of politically motivated violence, I believe this type of behavior utilized by radical activists is thoroughly disgusting and should be met with swift condemnation—not championed in the media.”
In July, Paxton sued the Biden administration over guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services that hospitals and doctors must perform abortions in emergency situations.
Paxton, who was elected attorney general in 2014 and reelected in 2018, has been under indictment on securities fraud charges for seven years, though the case has not gone to trial. He won his Republican primary in May, defeating GOP challenger George P. Bush in a runoff.

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American Airlines and JetBlue launched their alliance in the Northeast in early 2021.
The agreement allows them to coordinate routes and allow passengers to book on each other’s sites.
The carriers argue the pact allows them to better compete against larger airlines, but the Justice Department said it would drive up airfare.

An American Airlines plane lands on a runway near a parked JetBlue plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 16, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The Justice Department heads to court in Boston on Tuesday in hopes of undoing a year-and-a-half-old pact between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways in the Northeast U.S.
The carriers argue the deal allows them to better compete against larger airlines. But the Biden administration contends the agreement is effectively a merger that will drive up fares. Last September, the Justice Department along with the attorneys general of six states and the District of Columbia sued to block the partnership, which was approved in the final days of the Trump administration.

The antitrust trial will be a test for President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, which has been tasked with taking a hard stance against threats to competition.
However, the antitrust push has run into obstacles. Earlier this month, a federal judge denied the Justice Department’s bid to block UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Change Healthcare. Last week, another federal judge rejected the DOJ’s bid to stop a merger between two major U.S. sugar refiners.
The trial against the airline alliance comes as JetBlue is in the process of trying to acquire discount carrier Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion to create the country’s fifth-largest airline, a deal that faces a high hurdle with regulators, though that partnership isn’t a part of the lawsuit.
JetBlue, a quirky New York-based airline, identifies as a low-cost carrier but also offers high-end products like its premium Mint class, and last year launched flights to London from New York and Boston. The carrier has turned to partnerships and now a potential acquisition to grow.
“I think what we’ve seen through this and through the Spirit merger is management believes they have a challenge to scale growth and they view the pace of organic growth as too slow,” said Samuel Engel, an aviation analyst at consulting firm ICF.

The airlines’ Northeast Alliance allows them to share revenue, coordinate routes and sell seats on each other’s planes, which the airlines say help them better compete against rivals United Airlines and Delta Air Lines in the congested airspace in and around New York City and Boston.
American and JetBlue have about a 31% combined share of the departing seats from the major airports serving New York City, while United has 24% and Delta has 22%, according to ICF data. In Boston, the carriers under the NEA have a 45% combined share of departing seats over Delta’s 24% and United’s 8%.
The alliance “will eliminate significant competition between American and JetBlue that has led to lower fares and higher quality service for consumers traveling to and from those airports,” the Justice Department’s suit alleges. “It will also closely tie JetBlue’s fate to that of American, diminishing JetBlue’s incentives to compete with American in markets across the country.”
American and JetBlue, in a pretrial brief filed Saturday, said that there is no evidence that consumers have been harmed by the alliance and that it allows them to expand in capacity-constrained airports where they wouldn’t be able to on their own.
Witnesses are expected to include the airlines’ top executives, including JetBlue’s CEO, Robin Hayes, the first witness scheduled for Tuesday. Other airlines’ executives could also testify.
The trial begins as Biden and other administration officials are taking a hard line against airline performance following an increase in cancellation and delay rates during the summer.
On Monday, Biden announced a proposal for a new rule to require airlines and online travel agencies to provide passengers with fee information for add-ons like seat selection at the time they are searching for fares. In the summer, the Transportation Department proposed stricter rules for passenger refunds when flights are canceled or delayed.
“No one’s ever lost votes for being critical of airlines,” said Matt Colbert, who previously managed operations and strategies at several U.S. carriers and is founder of consulting firm Empire Aviation Services.

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Hertz and BP Pulse, the oil giant’s EV charging unit, will install thousands of chargers at Hertz sites across the U.S.
The chargers will support Hertz’s plans to add hundreds of thousands of EVs to its fleet over the next several years.
Some of the new chargers, at high-traffic Hertz sites, will be open to the general public.

Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles at a Hertz neighborhood location.

Hertz is teaming up with oil giant BP to build a new network of electric vehicle charging stations throughout the United States.
The rental car giant — which in the last year has announced deals to purchase a total of up to 340,000 EVs from Tesla, Polestar and General Motors by 2027 — is working with a unit of BP to install thousands of new chargers at its U.S. locations.

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Under the deal, BP Pulse, the oil company’s EV-charging arm, will install the chargers and provide software and services to help Hertz manage its fast-growing fleet of EVs.
While many of the chargers will be used to recharge EVs in Hertz’s own fleet, some will be made available to taxi and ride-hailing drivers and the general public, the companies said. Access to chargers is often cited as a potential roadblock to wider EV adoption by U.S. consumers.
The new deal builds on an existing program under which BP Pulse installed chargers at 25 of Hertz’s busiest airport locations. They did not specify how many they plan to eventually build.
Hertz already has thousands of EVs available for rent at about 500 of its locations in 38 U.S. states, where it has been installing its own chargers. It expects to have about 3,000 chargers in operation at its sites across the U.S by the end of 2023.
The company plans to have EVs make up a quarter of its fleet by the end of 2024.

Vic Shao, who leads BP Pulse’s fleet business, told CNBC that the new deal will include software to help Hertz manage the complex task of keeping its growing EV fleet charged and ready to rent.
“When you have gasoline or diesel, you have a scenario where the pricing for the fuel is up or down by maybe you know, 25%, a given year or something like that,” Shao told CNBC. But in some markets, like California, “prices can be up and down by 400% a day for electricity.”
“So when you’re operating a large-scale fleet, unless you have a fix on the cost of your ‘fuel,’ electricity in this case, it’s very difficult to scale up. You need to get a handle on the operational expense,” he said.
Shao said that BP Pulse’s fleet software will help Hertz reduce its electricity costs by scheduling vehicles to recharge at lower-cost times of day, part of helping to manage what he called the “choreographed dance” of keeping a fleet of EVs fully charged and ready for customers.
In addition to chargers and software to serve Hertz’s own fleet, the two companies plan to build chargers that will be available to the general public, taking advantage of Hertz’s high-traffic locations throughout the country. The companies expect ride-hailing drivers, particularly those who rent EVs from Hertz, to be prime customers for those chargers.
Hertz said that more than 25,000 Uber drivers have rented Teslas under its deal with the ride-hailing giant.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct that the 3,000 chargers Hertz plans to install by the end of this year are separate from its deal with BP.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill said it will test “Chippy,” an autonomous kitchen assistant made by Miso Robotics, next month in a California location.
Restaurants and retailers have been testing robotics and automation to streamline operations.
Chipotle also said it’s piloting a new system to reduce food waste and location-based technology for its mobile app.

Chipotle is testing out an autonomous kitchen assistant, Chippy, which offers a robotic solution for making chips in restaurants.
Courtesy: Chipotle

Chipotle Mexican Grill is moving one step closer to having a robot make its tortilla chips.
The burrito chain said Tuesday that it will test “Chippy,” an autonomous kitchen assistant made by Miso Robotics, next month in a restaurant in Fountain Valley, California. Chipotle has already tested Chippy’s ability to make and season its tortilla chips with salt and lime at its headquarters’ innovation hub in Irvine, California.

Like the rest of its new tech and menu items, the company is relying on its “stage-gate process” to test and learn from workers and customers to decide how to roll out the technology nationwide. Today, workers at Chipotle restaurants fry and season the chips, which can be time consuming.
Restaurants and retailers have been testing robotics and automation to speed up operations and reduce menial tasks for workers. Starbucks recently unveiled new systems for more efficiently making cold coffee drinks, brewing drip coffee and serving food. Elsewhere, Panera Bread and McDonald’s have been testing automated drive-thru ordering to cut down service times, while White Castle and Buffalo Wild Wings also are testing Miso Robotics’ technology.
In addition to the Chippy restaurant test, Chipotle said it’s piloting a new kitchen management system that uses machine learning to predict demand for its ingredients in order to improve freshness and minimize food waste. The system designed by PreciTaste is being tested at eight restaurants in Orange County.
And in Cleveland, the company said 73 of its restaurants are piloting location-based technology to improve its mobile app. The program is meant to help customers and delivery drivers know when orders are ready, if they’re at the wrong location and to scan loyalty QR codes. The technology created by Flybuy by Radius Networks is also being used by retailers like Harris Teeter, Albertsons and Vineyard Vines.

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The U.K. wants to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans by 2030. It will require, from 2035, all new cars and vans to have zero-tailpipe emissions.
With more EVs set to arrive on Britain’s roads in the years ahead, the RAC, a motoring organization, is backing calls for a VAT cut in electricity sold at public chargers.
There have been concerns in some quarters that the increasing cost of charging an EV will disincentivize uptake among consumers.

The U.K. has laid out plans to ramp up the number of electric vehicles on its roads over the next few years.
Coldsnowstorm | E+ | Getty Images

Electric car drivers in the U.K. have seen the cost of using a public, “rapid” charger on a pay-as-you-go tariff rise by 42% since May, according to data released Monday.
Figures from RAC Charge Watch — which is part of the RAC, a motoring organization — show that it now costs EV drivers using the above infrastructure an average of 63.29 pence (72 cents) a kilowatt hour to charge their vehicle.

Breaking the figures down, the RAC said this meant an 80% rapid charge of a “typical family-sized electric car” using a 64 kWh battery cost, on average, £32.41 (around $34.87).
The RAC said the increase was down to “the soaring costs of wholesale gas and electricity.” It added that those using “ultra-rapid” chargers had also seen average charging costs jump by 25%.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

The analysis also showed that “a driver exclusively using a rapid or ultra-rapid charger on the public network will now pay around 18p per mile for electricity,” the RAC said.
“This compares to 19p per mile for a petrol [gasoline] car and 21p per mile for a diesel one, based on someone driving at an average of 40 miles to the gallon,” it went on to state.
Despite the above, the RAC noted that many EV users would for the most part charge at their home, where electricity costs less.

With the U.K. government’s Energy Price Guarantee set to come into force imminently, the price per mile for an average-sized electric vehicle would come in at roughly 9p for charging at home, if driven in a reasonably efficient manner. An 80% charge at home would cost £17.87, the RAC said.
“For those that have already made the switch to an electric car or are thinking of doing so, it remains the case that charging away from home costs less than refuelling a petrol or diesel car, but these figures show that the gap is narrowing as a result of the enormous increases in the cost of electricity,” Simon Williams, the RAC’s electric vehicle spokesperson, said.
“These figures very clearly show that it’s drivers who use public rapid and ultra-rapid chargers the most who are being hit the hardest,” he added.

Read more about energy from CNBC Pro

The U.K. wants to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans by 2030. It will require, from 2035, all new cars and vans to have zero-tailpipe emissions.
With more EVs set to arrive on Britain’s roads in the years ahead, the RAC is backing calls for a sales tax cut in electricity sold at public chargers in order to redress what it sees as an imbalance between public and private charging.
“While the Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme announced last week should help prevent charging costs from spiralling still further, it remains the case that drivers using public chargers unfairly pay 20% in VAT [sales tax] for electricity they buy, compared to charging at home where it’s just 5%,” it said, adding that it was supporting a campaign for a 5% rate for both public and private charging.
In a statement sent to CNBC, a government spokesperson said EVs continued to “offer opportunities for savings against their petrol and diesel counterparts with lower overall running costs thanks to cheaper charging, lower maintenance costs and tax incentives.”
“We want consumers to have the confidence to make the switch to cleaner, zero emissions cars, and that is why we continue to support the growth of our world-leading charging network and have pledged £1.6bn since 2020 to delivering chargepoints across the country,” the spokesperson added.
With European economies facing an energy crisis and soaring prices over the coming months, there have been concerns in some quarters that the increasing cost of charging an EV will disincentivize uptake among consumers.
Speaking to CNBC earlier this month, the head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank said “the cost advantage for electric vehicles versus a gasoline car” was “fast diminishing” in Europe.
“I’m really wondering to what degree that will begin to impact sales for EVs,” Peter Garnry said. More

Travelers headed to Hong Kong no longer need to quarantine in a hotel upon arrival.
But they will have to submit to a barrage of Covid tests.

They can go to work, take public transportation and go to supermarkets, but for the first three days, travelers can’t go into “high-risk premises” such as restaurants, bars and gyms.
Visitors who plan an eight-day trip must take 12 tests — four PCR and eight rapid antigen tests — which averages to 1.5 tests per day.
Moreover, those who test positive must isolate in a community facility for at least a week.
Still, the relaxed rules are welcome news to the city’s residents, who have endured hotel quarantine restrictions of up to three weeks at various points during the pandemic.
The news came the day after Hong Kong lost its No. 3 ranking on the The Global Financial Centres Index, ceding its position to Singapore, which climbed three places — surpassing Hong Kong and Shanghai — to become Asia’s top financial center.

The new rules

The new rules, effective Monday, require that before departing, travelers must:

Test negative via a self-administered rapid antigen test
Report the test result in an online health declaration
Obtain a health declaration QR code to be presented before departing and upon arrival
Be vaccinated to enter, or have a medical exemption certificate (if a non-resident and aged 12 or older)

After arriving, travelers must:

Take a PCR test at the airport, then again on days 2, 4 and 6 (the arrival date is day 0)
Take daily rapid antigen tests from days 1 to 7
Submit to three days of medical surveillance, during which time they must avoid places like restaurants, nightclubs and salons
Follow a four-day self-monitoring period

A rush to leave, less interest to enter

Friday’s announcement spurred a surge of outbound flight interest, according to the travel booking company Expedia.
Flight searches from Hong Kong to Japan saw a 10-fold increase in the three days following the announcement, compared to the week prior, while flight searches to Taiwan saw a 12-fold increase during the same time period, according to Expedia.
The top flight searches by Hong Kong travelers on Expedia over the weekend were to:

Osaka, Japan 
Tokyo, Japan 
Seoul, South Korea
Bangkok, Thailand 
Sapporo, Japan 
Taipei, Taiwan 
Taichung, Taiwan 
Singapore 
Fukuoka, Japan 
London, United Kingdom  

However, travel interest to Hong Kong was much more tepid.
Expedia’s search data for accommodations in Hong Kong increased 50% over the weekend, compared to the week before the announcement.
Interest in going to Hong Kong wasn’t dominated by regional travelers either. The United Kingdom, Canada and the United States were the top inbound markets, according to Expedia’s flight search data.
Pang Yiu-kai, chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, acknowledged on Tuesday that the eased rules are “expected to initially attract mainly business travelers, family visitors and returning Hong Kong residents.”

A step forward, yet still behind the times

Scrapping hotel quarantines is a “step forward,” said Joseph Armas, executive director of Hong Kong’s American Chamber of Commerce.
But to really boost the city’s tourism and hospitality sector, Armas said the remaining regulations need to be removed.

Japan is a recent example of a rule-laden reopening strategy that drew far fewer tourists than expected.
Japan announced Thursday travelers would be allowed to travel freely through the country starting Oct. 11, ending restrictions that were said to be confusing travelers the most. That same day, flight searches to Japan almost doubled, according to Expedia’s data.
Regina Ip, convenor of the Hong Kong Executive Council, said the “next logical step” for Hong Kong is to remove the three days of medical supervision that prohibits travelers from dining in restaurants.
Ip said she expects measures to be further relaxed next month after Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee delivers his policy address on Oct. 19.

Prelude to China’s reopening?

The easing of Covid-19 measures in Hong Kong spurred hope among residents of China that they could soon see relaxed rules as well.
China’s borders have been shut since March of 2020, as the pandemic spread globally.
Currently, travelers entering the country must quarantine at a centralized facility — such as a hotel — for seven days, followed by an additional three days at home before going out.
“Many of the businesses and residents in Hong Kong rely on the mainland, and that travel back and forth is critical to their businesses,” Armas told CNBC’s “Squawkbox Asia” on Monday.

Although it seems like there’s light at the end of the tunnel, China is unlikely to see “significant easing” of Covid measures until next spring, said Andrew Tilton, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Goldman Sachs.
The elderly in China still need “a round of booster shots” and the government would want to ensure it has enough medication, should another Covid wave occur after the country reopens, he said.
“China is a big country. We are only one city … I’m not sure our approach could be applied to the entire country,” said Ip.
There could be some good news for residents in China though.
After almost three years, Macao is set to reopen its borders to travelers from China in the coming weeks, Reuters reported.
The world’s largest gambling hub has been badly hit by China’s zero-Covid policy, as its “main customer flows” come from the mainland, said Matthew Ossolinski, chairman of Ossolinski Holdings. When borders between China and Macao reopen, “it’ll be interesting to see if there’s a stampede or a trickle, but there’s an enormous amount of pent-up demand,” he added. More

A proposed rule would require airlines and online travel agencies to disclose fees like those for advanced seat selection, checked baggage and other add-ons.
The Biden administration has previously sought stricter rules for airlines’ passenger refunds.

President Joe Biden on Monday announced new rules that would require airlines and online travel agencies to disclose fees for seat selection, checked baggage and other add-ons along with fares, the administration’s latest effort to bolster passenger protections after a rocky summer travel season.
Airlines charge travelers for a number of additional perks, which used to come with the cost of a ticket, including a fee for advanced selection for many seats on board, even those without extra legroom.

The president outlined the Transportation Department’s new proposed rules during a speech at a meeting at the White House Competition Council on Monday.
“You should know the full cost of your ticket, right when you’re comparison shopping,” Biden said.

Travelers at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in the Queens borough of New York, US, on Friday, July 2, 2022. As travel is ramping up for the July 4th holiday, staffing shortages are causing problems for some of the nations largest airlines.
Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a news release earlier on Monday that the proposed rule “would require airlines to be transparent with customers about the fees they charge, which will help travelers make informed decisions and save money.”
Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. carriers, said airlines are already transparent about ticket fees.
“A4A member passenger airlines – which are fierce competitors— already offer transparency to consumers from first search to touchdown,” the group said in a statement. “U.S. airlines are committed to providing the highest quality of service, which includes clarity regarding prices, fees and ticket terms.”

Carriers and online travel agencies have updated their websites in recent years to highlight the details of basic economy tickets, airlines’ most restrictive but cheaper fares. Airline executives have said they want passengers to eschew those tickets in favor of more flexible standard economy fares.
The Biden administration’s proposal comes less than two months after the Transportation Department sought stricter standards for when airlines have to refund travelers for delays.

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Three men were charged with various crimes, including securities fraud, in a scheme involving a small-town New Jersey deli.
Your Hometown Deli was operated under an umbrella company called Hometown International. It became known as the $100 million deli, reflecting its owner’s bizarrely huge market value.
James Patten, Peter Coker Sr. and Peter Coker Jr. face stiff prison sentences and fines for allegedly manipulating markets and defrauding investors.

Hometown Deli, Paulsboro, N.J.
Mike Calia | CNBC

Three men were charged with fraud and other crimes in a scheme involving a company that was worth $100 million in the stock market despite having only a small-town New Jersey deli to its name, federal authorities said Monday.
The men – James Patten, 63, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Peter Coker Sr., 80, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Peter Coker Jr., 53, of Hong Kong – were charged with 12 counts, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices. Patten and Coker Sr. were arrested and appeared in a North Carolina court on Monday. They are expected to appear in New Jersey federal court at a later date. Coker Jr. is still at large.

Federal prosecutors said Patten is also charged with four counts of manipulation of securities, four counts of wire fraud, and a count of money laundering. The men were also accused of market manipulation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC said its investigation is ongoing.
Coker Jr. was chairman of Hometown International, while Coker Sr. was a major shareholder. There were no lawyers of record for the defendants as of Monday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey.
Your Hometown Deli, the business at the center of the probe, was located in Paulsboro, New Jersey, over the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The deli, lauded for its cheesesteaks and Italian subs, had under $40,000 in annual revenue and closed earlier this year. The parent company, Hometown International, had merged with a bioplastics company. Fellow shell company E-Waste, which shared connections with the deli owner, also merged with another firm last year.
The controversy surrounding Your Hometown Deli and the people involved in it prompted questions about whether its parent company was operating within the law. The accusations also are connected to the men’s involvement in E-Waste.
The $100 million New Jersey deli, as Your Hometown Deli came to be known, was first brought to the public’s attention by investor David Einhorn in a 2021 letter to clients. CNBC reported further on the company, including by unearthing more details about its then-CEO, Paul Morina, a legendary high school wrestling coach in southern New Jersey. Morina was later fired as CEO. An attempt to reach Morina was unsuccessful.

Patten, one of the men charged in the scheme, wrestled in high school with Morina. Prosecutors said Patten convinced the owners of the deli, which was established in 2014, to put it under the control of an umbrella company, called Hometown International.
“Unbeknownst to the deli owners, almost immediately after Hometown International was formed, Patten and his associates began positioning Hometown International as a vehicle for a reverse merger that would yield substantial profit to them,” prosecutors said in a release.
In 2019, Hometown International started selling shares on what’s known as the OTC Marketplace, where stock of small companies is traded.
“Shortly thereafter, Patten, Coker Sr., And Coker Jr. undertook a calculated scheme to gain control of Hometown International’s management and its shares from the deli owners,” prosecutors said. The men took similar actions to take control of E-Waste, prosecutors said. That company’s shares surged, too, even though it didn’t have any real business, according to CNBC reporting.
Prosecutors said the tactics “artificially inflated” the values of Hometown International and E-Waste stock by 939% and 19,900%, respectively.

As of last year, Patten was barred by FINRA, the broker-dealer regulator, from acting as a stockbroker or associating with broker-dealers. He was the subject of repeated disciplinary actions by FINRA. In 2006, he successfully appealed sanctions issued by an SEC judge in a case where he was accused of manipulating the price of a stock listed on the Nasdaq. Patten was defended in that matter by Ira Sorkin, who was best known for representing Ponzi scheme kingpin Bernie Madoff.
The Cokers and Patten face steep prison sentences and fines. The securities fraud and securities price manipulation counts carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The wire fraud and money laundering counts also have maximum penalties of 20 years in prison. The conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices counts each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Coker Jr. and Sr. are father and son. CNBC had previously reported on their business dealings and other misadventures.
Read the full indictment here.

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