Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a SEC whistleblower award of $5 million given to an individual who “suffered a unique hardship” and provided evidence of wrongdoing that led to a successful enforcement action by the Commission.

According to an SEC press release, the fired whistleblower was let go soon after internally reporting concerns about conduct in question with a supervisor.

The claimant provided critical documents to the commission and helped save the SEC time and resources, according to the SEC order.

“The whistleblower award today is the seventh award the SEC has announced to individual whistleblowers in the last month,” said Jane Norberg, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. “These awards demonstrate the valuable contributions whistleblowers make to the protection of markets and investors and we encourage people to come forward with information about possible securities law violations.”

As set forth under the Dodd-Frank Act, SEC whistleblowers can confidentially and anonymously report securities and commodities frauds committed in the U.S. and overseas.

Ben Kostyack also contributed to this article.