For the first time the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has invoked the 120-day safe harbor rule to award a whistleblower who first reported the complaint to a different federal agency.

The SEC on Thursday said it awarded more than $2.2 million to the whistleblower, who also later gave the same information to SEC investigators. Under the safe harbor rule, if a whistleblower gives the SEC the same information within 120 days of reporting it to another agency, the commission will treat the information as received on the same date as the other agency.