The SEC says Aon earned over $11 million as a result of improper payments in foreign countries.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Insurance giant Aon has agreed to pay more than $16 million in fines to settle charges that its subsidiaries bribed foreign government officials, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday.
Aon will pay $14.5 million to the SEC and $1.7 million to the Department of Justice to settle alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the SEC said in a statement. The SEC's complaint alleges that Aon subsidiaries paid over $3.6 million in bribes in countries including Egypt, Costa Rica and Myanmar between 1983 and 2007.
Aon earned over $11 million in profits as a result of these unlawful payments, the complaint claims.
"Aon's liability is not premised on an isolated instance of misconduct," Kara Brockmeyer, head of the SEC's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement division, said in a statement. "Rather, for years, Aon's subsidiaries repeatedly engaged in misconduct around the world."
The Chicago-based Aon is an insurance and reinsurance brokerage with 61,000 employees in more than 120 countries. The firm said in a statement Tuesday that it had instituted "a comprehensive, global and robust anti-corruption program" since it began reviewing the issues raised by the SEC in 2007.
A lawyer for Aon (AON, Fortune 500) did not immediately return a request for comment. Aon settled the case without admitting or denying the charges.
The SEC has been under fire lately for allowing firms to settle cases without admitting or denying the allegations against them, a practice that federal judge Jed Rakoff described last month as "hallowed by history, but not by reason," when he rejected a proposed settlement with Citigroup (C, Fortune 500). The agency has settled cases against a number of other large firms in recent months including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo. 
