WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — The US Securities and Exchange Commission, stepping up enforcement in the wake of a global financial crisis, said it opened more inquiries, brought claims faster and doubled sanctions in the latest fiscal year.

Fines and orders to forfeit illegal profits jumped to $2.4 billion in the 12 months through September 30, compared with $1.03 billion a year earlier, the SEC said yesterday in a statement. New probes rose six percent to 944, according to a separate report.

SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami is reorganising his division to add investigators, speed inquiries and create specialty units after investors were burned by the global credit crisis and the agency's failure to detect Bernard Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme. President Barack Obama's administration also announced an additional step, forming a multi-agency financial fraud task force including the SEC.

"The creation of the task force occurs at a time that we at the SEC have taken a series of steps to optimise our effectiveness," Khuzami said at a Washington news conference announcing the plan. "These will make us an even more effective partner to other task force members," said Khuzami, who took over the division in March.

The financial crisis helped expose Ponzi schemes and investment frauds, making them a larger share of the agency's caseload, according to the SEC's report. Madoff, whose fraud unravelled in December, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to criminal charges in July.

In June, the SEC sued former Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo, claiming he misled investors about the company's worsening financial condition and sold shares to avoid losses. Mozilo denies the allegations. In August, the agency extracted $15 million from Maurice (Hank) Greenberg, former head of American International Group Inc., who didn't admit or deny wrongdoing in settling SEC claims he was liable when the insurer allegedly violated antifraud laws.

About 70 percent of claims in fiscal 2009 were filed less than two years after probes were opened, an increase from 62 percent a year earlier in a benchmark measuring investigators' efficiency. The agency's target was 60 percent.

Since the fiscal year closed on September 30, the SEC has sued more than two dozen people, including Galleon Group hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, for allegedly participating in insider-trading rings. Rajaratnam, who is also facing criminal charges, has denied wrongdoing.

Those cases stem from the SEC's increased cooperation with federal prosecutors. In the last fiscal year, more than 150 of the agency's civil cases were brought in tandem with criminal charges, a 30 percent increase, Khuzami said.