The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced awards totaling more than $104 million to seven whistleblowers whose information and assistance led to a successful enforcement action.

The combined award is the fourth largest in the whistleblower program’s history, the agency said in a press release Friday.

“[S]pecific and credible information plays an integral part in the SEC’s enforcement efforts,” Creola Kelly, chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, said in the release. “These whistleblowers provided information that helped enforcement staff detect and prosecute wrongdoing in a timely manner.”

The whistleblowers, composed of two sets of joint claimants and three single claimants, provided documents supporting allegations of misconduct, agreed to interviews, and identified potential witnesses, according to the SEC.

In total, 11 claimants submitted award requests, according to the SEC’s order. Two of the four spurned claimants submitted appeals that were denied.

In four cases, the SEC recognized alleged retaliation and other hardships claimants experienced in reporting to the commission. In another case, a rejected claimant that served as an attorney for an unnamed company under investigation did not receive an award because the information they provided fell under attorney-client privilege, per the order.

The SEC protects the confidentiality of whistleblowers and does not disclose any information that could reveal their identity.

Jeff Dale is Managing Editor, Editorial Projects and Analytics, at Compliance Week. He previously served as Compliance Week's Digital Editor and has worked as a copy editor at the Boston Herald and city editor at The Hour Publishing Co. in Norwalk, Conn.View full Profile

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