Jane Norberg, the SEC whistleblower chief. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday issued the largest bounty in the decadelong history of its program for paying tipsters, awarding nearly $50 million to a whistleblower who was credited with providing "firsthand" information about corporate misconduct that led to an enforcement action.

"This award marks several milestones for the whistleblower program," Jane Norberg, chief of the SEC's whistleblower office, said. "This award is the largest individual whistleblower award announced by the SEC since the inception of the program, and brings the total awarded to whistleblowers by the SEC to over $500 million, including over $100 million in this fiscal year alone. Whistleblowers have proven to be a critical tool in the enforcement arsenal to combat fraud and protect investors."

With the latest award, the SEC topped its previous record: a $39 million bounty issued in 2018. The SEC has now awarded 13 separate tipsters in 2020. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the SEC issued awards to eight tipsters, according to the whistleblower office's most recent report to Congress.

Under the SEC's whistleblower program, created by the Dodd-Frank reforms that followed the financial crisis, tipsters deemed worthy of awards are entitled to between 10% and 30% of the money collected in enforcement actions that result in more than $1 million in sanctions.

Following its standard practice, the SEC did not name the recipient of its latest award, nor did it identify the enforcement action that gave rise to the bounty. In the order approving the award, the SEC credited the whistleblower for providing firsthand observations of "misconduct by the company that was previously unknown to the staff."

In the course of the SEC's probe, the whistleblower "laid out in detail substantial aspects of the scheme and provided a road map for the investigation," the commission added, noting that the enforcement action helped return a significant amount of money to harmed investors.

The SEC order suggested that the whistleblower had assisted other federal agencies in bringing enforcement actions—and attempted to be rewarded for doing so. An SEC panel denied the whistleblower's claims in connection with those other agencies, finding that they were not sufficiently related to the commission's enforcement action. The SEC's order indicated that the whistleblower did not appeal that preliminary determination.

In the same order, the SEC rejected a second award applicant who claimed to have "jointly" tipped off the commission with the recipient of the nearly $50 million bounty. The SEC said repeatedly that there was "no evidence" that the second applicant assisted with the enforcement action and that the purported whistleblower missed the deadline for pursuing a bounty by 10 months.

The purported whistleblower claimed that the recipient of Thursday's whistleblower award had submitted an application on behalf of "both of them, as there was no space for them to both sign," the SEC said.

The SEC said there was "no evidence" that the second applicant participated "in any manner" with the other whistleblower's tip.

"Accordingly," the SEC said, the purported second tipster "does not qualify as a whistleblower and is thus not eligible to receive an award."