'CHiPs' Actor's Journey in the Land of Penny Stocks

Mr. Wilcox is accused of paying $16,000 in kickbacks to an undercover F.B.I. agent in return for the agent purchasing 1.6 million restricted shares of stock in Mr. Wilcox's company — which the S.E.C. said in its complaint "purports to be in the mining, energy, and global Web television businesses."

Neither Mr. Wilcox nor his lawyer returned telephone messages from DealBook. But what information is readily available suggests that “Ponch” might not be so happy with what his former “CHiPs” partner has been up to lately.

But Mr. Wilcox’s acting career petered out over the next decade â€" although he did make a cameo on "30 Rock" last season — and at some point, evidently, he decided to switch from acting to business. The Web site for Mr. Wilcox's company dates back to 1999, when the “UC” in its name stood for "United Communications."

2005: "Presently, UC Hub Group offers communication services that include online billing, Wi-Fi, VoIP, long distance, phone systems, software, Municipal Government software and banking services."

2007: "UC Hub Group, Inc. is a versatile holding company engaged through its subsidiaries and otherwise in distribution of electronic services to municipalities, businesses and retail customers, virtual and electronic financial services, and developing software and operations in securities-collateralized and asset-based lending industries domestically and overseas."

2008: "UC Hub Group, Inc., operates as a software development, marketing and digital distribution company for transaction based operations on the web and mobile phone."

At some point in 2008 or 2009, however, the focus of the business evidently changed, and the UC Hub Group's technocentric Web site begot a mining-and-drilling Web site. (View the evolution of UC Hub Group's Web pages here.)

But Mr. Wilcox's propensity toward verbose press releases touting impending business ventures continued unabated. The current Web site lists nearly two dozen statements over the last two years, primarily regarding the two major projects the company says it is undertaking: a sapphire- and gold-mining operation in Montana, and an oil-drilling operation in Illinois.

In any case, Mr. Wilcox is no longer listed on the UC Hub Group Web site as part of the company's management. And while no other employees could be reached for comment — the phone number listed on the site goes to a voicemail box for Mr. Wilcox — the company does offer a pre-emptive defense of sorts on its home page.