(Bloomberg) -- Aon Corp. clients accepted more than 70 percent of the 352,000 offers made by the insurance broker to settle claims it steered business to insurers who paid hidden fees, an Aon spokesman said.

More than 900 of the Chicago-based company's 1,000 largest clients by revenue were among those who accepted offers, Aon spokesman Al Orendorff said.

The claims will be paid out of a $190 million fund created as part of a nationwide settlement Aon reached with prosecutors in Connecticut, Illinois and New York.

"People who opt into the settlement can't sue Aon in the future," Orendorff said today in an interview. Orendorff, who didn't disclose the value of settlements accepted or the number of clients who accepted them, said some took multiple offers.

Aon, the world's second largest insurance broker, along with rivals Marsh & McLennan Cos., the No. 1 broker, and Willis Group Holdings, has been accused of steering business to insurers that paid hidden fees.

Aon, which didn't admit or deny wrongdoing as part of the March settlement, has been seeking to eliminate the risk of litigation by extending settlement offers.

On December 7, Illinois state court Judge Julia Nowicki in Chicago delayed ruling on a separate $38 million settlement in a 1999 class action lawsuit against Aon.

The suit was filed by policyholders Alan Daniel and the Williamson County Agricultural Association. Nowicki gave lawyers on both sides two weeks to file additional arguments in the suit, which also accused the insurance broker of favouring insurers that paid the hidden fees.

The percentage of settlement offers accepted was previously reported by Business Insurance, a trade journal published by Crain Communications Inc. in Chicago.