NBCWhat would Ponch say about this?
Larry Wilcox, forever known as Erik Estrada's riding mate Officer Jonathan "Jon" Baker on NBC's CHiPs, has been hit with securities fraud charges after getting caught up in a sting with at least a dozen others over an alleged penny stock kickback scam.
And believe us, this is much more serious than a speeding ticket.
The complaint, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a U.S. District Court in Florida, alleges the 63-year-old actor and his cohorts dreamed up "various illicit kickback schemes to manipulate the volume and price of microcap stocks and illegally generate stock sales."
The group would offer up "kickbacks to purportedly corrupt pension fund managers or stockbrokers, who would use their clients' accounts to purchase the publicly traded stock of microcap issuers controlled or promoted by the individuals and companies charged today," per an SEC release.
Little did Wilcox and his alleged coconspirators realize that they were trying to hatch the plot with some undercover FBI agents.
"These penny stock promoters paid illicit kickbacks to people who they thought would help them profit at the expense of unsuspecting investors by manipulating the price of their stock or fraudulently selling their shares," said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.
The actor, who lives in Ft. Lauderdale and owns a company called UC Hub Group, most recently appeared on TV, in his CHiPs guise, on last season's 30 Rock.
No comment yet from Wilcox's attorney.
More importantly, we want to know what Estrada thinks of this mess.