The shares of Duke and Vanderbilt, among the biggest stakes in Hometown International, were acquired in the past year as part of what financial filings indicate is an effort to use Hometown International — as well as a shell company called E-Waste — as vehicles for private companies to become publicly traded on U.S. stock markets through either reverse mergers or similar maneuvers.
It is not clear whether Duke and Vanderbilt are among the would-be buyers of shares in E-Waste, which last week announced it was offering to sell stock for $2.5 million. E-Waste, which is tied to people connected to Hometown, and which has borrowed money from the deli owner, has no ongoing business, but despite that has a market capitalization of more than $100 million.