(0:00) Open
(2:08) The $100M Hometown Deli
(10:33) OTC Markets Group
(14:20) A Reverse Merger
(16:59) Price It Your Way.
(19:01) The SPACs
(27:13) In Conclusion: Behind the Bars
(31:12) cj’s recommendation: Jim Downey on Conan O’Brien
(32:32) Jeff’s Recommendation: The Wolf of Wall Street
Partway down a residential street in the working-class town of Paulsboro, New Jersey, stood a seemingly unremarkable Italian deli. But this wasn’t just any sandwich shop. Despite its doors often being locked and its annual revenue having plummeted to a meager $13,976, this single business was the sole asset of a publicly traded company valued at an astonishing $113 million.
This baffling discrepancy, initially exposed by a hedge fund billionaire as a prime example of financial "quasi-anarchy," had sent reporters and regulators on a wild chase for answers.
The deli's president was the town’s beloved high school wrestling coach, who had inexplicably teamed up with a shadowy network of investors in Macau and a motley crew with a history of legal troubles. As the story unraveled, it revealed a tangled web of empty shell companies and fraud accusations.
The deli raised a chilling question: was this a complex money-laundering front, or a new kind of meme stock whose value simply defied all reason?
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (Shepperton Studios / 1978)
HWIN stock: $100M NJ deli company delisted for disclosure irregularities
Volkswagen: The scandal explained - BBC News
Hometown International - Wikiwand
The Mystery of the $113 Million Deli - The New York Times
Special-purpose acquisition company - Wikiwand
"Jim Downey" on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend | Team Coco
The Wolf of Wall Street Official Trailer