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The identity is a mystery, but someone who provided important information to regulators in a securities fraud enforcement action is suddenly $30 million richer thanks to a federal whistle-blower law.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Monday that it had approved a payment of between $30 million and $35 million to an unnamed individual who lives in a foreign country, for providing information that helped federal authorities “detect an ongoing fraud.”

The award is the largest ever given out by S.E.C. under the whistle-blower law, which was enacted as part of the financial regulatory overhaul known as Dodd-Frank. The first such payout, in August 2012, was for nearly $50,000.

The S.E.C., as required by the whistle-blower statute, did not identify the individual nor the matter for which information was provided.

But as big as the award is, it could have even larger.

The S.E.C., in a four-page order, said the whistle-blower might have been awarded more money if he had acted sooner in bringing information to the attention of regulators. The whistle-blower’s delay in coming forward meant “investors continued to suffer significant monetary injury that otherwise might have been avoided.”

The whistle-blower came forward with his information a few months after Dodd-Frank became law.

Erika A. Kelton, a lawyer for the whistle-blower, said the S.E.C.’s characterization of her client as taking too long to come forward is unfair and inaccurate.

“I think what my client did was totally reasonable,” said Ms. Kelton, a lawyer with Phillips & Cohen, a law firm that specializes in representing whistle-blowers. “I don’t think it was delayed and I don’t think it was delayed unreasonably. I think the S.E.C. is wrong to suggest that people have an obligation to come forward before there were the protections of the S.E.C. program.“

The unknown whistle-blower, in a statement issued by Ms. Kelton’s firm, came forward because he was frustrated with seeing investors “being cheated out of millions of dollars.” The whistle-blower added that “deception had become an accepted business practice.”

The redacted order approving the award offered few clues about the nature of the enforcement action.

The whistle-blower law permits the S.E.C. to award anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of the amount collected by authorities as a result of the information to the informant.

In recent years, the S.E.C. has taken in ever big fines and penalties from companies with many of them relating to enforcement actions coming out of the financial crisis. Many of the S.E.C. cases have been brought in tandem with actions lodged by federal prosecutors and other government agencies.