SEC to make third-largest whistleblower award

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to award between $5 million and $6 million to a former company insider whose detailed tip led the agency to uncover securities violations it said would have been “nearly impossible” to detect otherwise.

This follows a $3.5 million award announced Friday by the SEC to a company employee whose tip, it said, bolstered an ongoing investigation with additional evidence of wrongdoing that strengthened the SEC’s case, the agency said Tuesday in a statement.

The names of whistleblowers, and the companies with which they are associated, are not revealed by the agency.

The SEC said Tuesday the $5 million award ranks as the third-highest it has granted to a whistleblower. In September 2014, it announced an award of more than $30 million. That exceeded the prior highest award of more than $14 million, which had been announced in October 2013.

The SEC said it has awarded more than $67 million to 29 whistleblowers since the whistleblower program’s 2011 inception.