By Jackie Wattles
WASHINGTON — (CNN) It pays to have a conscience.
Just ask the person who landed a $22 million payday for helping federal regulators put an end to a “well-hidden” securities fraud, the SEC said Tuesday.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission press release, the whistleblower gave a “detailed tip” and “extensive assistance” to authorities.
Jane Norberg, who heads the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, said in a statement that it would have been “extremely difficult for law enforcement to discover this securities fraud on its own.”
The person and the company where the fraud occurred were not named, and an SEC spokesperson declined to indicate the nature of the fraud.
The spokesperson said it is routine to keep the name of the company and the fraud secret to protect the whistleblower’s identity.
The commission began offering rewards to tipsters in 2011, and it’s now given out more than $107 million to 33 people.
The $22 million reward is the second largest the SEC has ever given out.
The largest was a $30 million prize given out in 2014.
Other agencies also compensate whistleblowers.
The Justice Department, for example, handed out a massive $168 million payment in 2013 to an unspecified number of people who gave information about illegal marketing and kickback payments at Johnson & Johnson.
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