A federal court in Illinois has denied a request by the former CEO of Aon Corp.’s Bolivian subsidiary to throw out a $20 million lawsuit the company had filed against him for allegedly misappropriating funds.

U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood in Chicago tossed out a motion to dismiss by Jose Luis Contreras Cabezas, former CEO, general manager and board chairman of subsidiaries Aon Bolivia and Aon Re Bolivia, in Aon Corp. v. Jose Luis Contreras Cabezas.

Mr. Contreras had claimed his case should be litigated in Bolivia, that the Chicago court lacked personal jurisdiction over him and that Aon lacked prudential standing, and thus any claims should come from the subsidiaries.

Aon sued Mr. Contreras in June 2015, charging he sent Aon funds to a shell company, Grupcor S.R.L. He allegedly misappropriated funds to purchase a building in La Paz, Bolivia, and offices and parking spaces in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Bolivia, in the name of Grupcor. He also misappropriated funds to make rental payments to Grupcor for the La Paz building and to enter into a lease and make lease payments to Grupcor for the Santa Cruz properties.

In order to conceal this misconduct, court records state, Mr. Contreras made a number of fraudulent representations and omissions to Aon in Illinois, including sending Aon false quarterly financial statements and accounting records for the Bolivian companies, and failing to disclose in Aon’s annual conflict of interest questionnaire that he had an interest in Grupcor or that he violated Aon’s code of conduct by causing the Bolivian Aon units to enter into business transactions with Grupcor.

Aon is seeking more than $20 million in compensation for its losses, plus court costs and punitive damages. The brokerage said it was forced to hire an outside firm to conduct a costly investigation and special audit after discovering unexplained payments that Mr. Contreras was making to himself.

Aon also said it lost its ability to conduct reinsurance brokerage business locally in Bolivia because Bolivian regulators permanently revoked Aon Re Bolivia’s brokerage license.

“The public interest factors favor retaining the case in this forum,” Judge Wood wrote in her decision. “Illinois has an interest in having this dispute resolved locally, given that the action is for an injury to Aon in Illinois, not an injury to the Bolivian companies. As Illinois has a strong interest in providing a forum to redress injury to Illinois corporations, the Court does not find any unfairness to Illinois citizens charged with jury duty in this case.”