SEC v. David G. Dreslin, Michael Toups and Leslie Toups (2018)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In December 2018 the SEC sued Florida CPA David Dreslin, former broker Michael Toups and his wife Leslie Toups, alleging they built a shell company, Anglesea Enterprises, on false filings and nominee officers in order to sell it. On 3 March 2020 a Florida federal court entered final consent judgments against all three, ordering $345,000 in penalties combined, plus $183,438 in disgorgement and $30,197 in interest against Dreslin. The defendants did not admit or deny the allegations.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	LR-24365
Date filed	2018-12-03
Date resolved	2020-03-03
Status	settled
Asset class	equities
Criminal parallel	No
Bars imposed	penny stock bar, officer-and-director bar
Defendants	David G. Dreslin (individual) ; Michael Toups (individual) ; Leslie Toups (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.13(a) ; Exchange Act s.16(a) ; Securities Act s.17(a) (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques	Reverse merger schemes , Undisclosed control blocks

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $345k
Disgorgement: $183k
Prejudgment interest: $30.2k
Total relief: $559k
Alleged gain: —

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on December 3, 2018 (litigation release 24365) a complaint filed in the Middle District of Florida.

The SEC alleged that Dreslin and Michael Toups created Anglesea Enterprises through false registration statements and periodic reports, a phony business plan and nominal officers and directors who concealed their control, aiming to sell the shell in a reverse merger for profit, and that Leslie Toups, as majority shareholder and director, signed filings containing false statements over several years. The charges were Section 17(a), Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, aiding and abetting false reports, and, against Dreslin, false statements to the auditor. This library tags the matter as reverse merger schemes and undisclosed control blocks; the tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

Outcome. The SEC's March 2020 release says a Florida federal court entered final consent judgments on 3 March 2020 against Dreslin and Michael Toups, after an earlier consent judgment against Leslie Toups. The judgments enjoin all three from fraud violations; Dreslin and Michael Toups each pay a $160,000 penalty and are barred permanently from penny stock offerings and from serving as officers or directors of public companies, while Leslie Toups pays $25,000 and is barred for five years. Dreslin was also ordered to pay $183,438 in disgorgement and $30,197 in prejudgment interest. The figures in this record are the sums across the three defendants. All three neither admitted nor denied the allegations, so the facts above remain allegations rather than findings.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

Reverse merger schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
Undisclosed control blocks — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Action	Agency	Filed	Technique	Penalty	Status
SEC v. Brian Quinn and David Skriloff (Environmental Packaging, 2024)	SEC	2024-10-18	Reverse Merger Schemes , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$461k	judgment
SEC v. Darren Ofsink and Michael T. Morris (CodeSmart, 2023)	SEC	2023-04-03	Reverse Merger Schemes , Undisclosed Control Blocks +1	—	judgment
SEC v. Peter DiChiara (reverse merger schemes, 2020)	SEC	2020-09-03	Reverse Merger Schemes , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$40k	settled
SEC v. Morrie Tobin et al. (undisclosed control blocks, 2019)	SEC	2019-08-30	Undisclosed Control Blocks , Reverse Merger Schemes	—	settled
SEC v. Delaney Equity Group LLC, David C. Delaney and Ian C. Kass (reverse merger schemes, 2018)	SEC	2018-08-29	Reverse Merger Schemes , Shell Factories +1	—	settled
SEC v. Manhattan Transfer Registrar Company and John C. Ahearn (reverse merger schemes, 2018)	SEC	2018-05-17	Reverse Merger Schemes , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$50k	settled

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.