The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission awarded more than $30 million to a whistle-blower in its largest payout from a program started in 2011 to encourage people to come forward with evidence of securities fraud, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The whistle-blower, who lives outside of the U.S., provided key information in an enforcement action that the SEC didn’t identify, the agency said yesterday. Whistle-blower awards range from 10 percent to 30 percent of the money collected in a case. Congress authorized the SEC’s whistle-blower program in 2010 as the agency was trying to bolster its enforcement program after having failed to act on a detailed tip that Bernard Madoff was operating a multibillion dollar fraud. The agency has made payouts to more than a dozen whistle-blowers, including a $14 million reward in 2013. By law, the SEC doesn’t disclose the identity of the whistle-blower or information that might reveal who it is.
