Philadelphia ? A company that sold life insurance to thousands of U.S. soldiers has agreed to pay $160 million to settle accusations that its salesmen posed as recruiters for the Non Commissioned Officers Assn. and paid kickbacks to use the name, prosecutors said Thursday.

Academy Life Insurance also agreed never to sell another policy in the United States.

All U.S. soldiers already get low-cost life insurance policies from the government when they enlist.

Prosecutors say Academy Life struck a secret agreement with the NCOA in 1991 in which it agreed to pay the group $700,000 a year, plus 1 percent of all premiums, in exchange for the NCOA’s help in getting access to the bases, normally off limits to insurance agents.

A spokesman for Academy Life, based in the Philadelphia suburb of Frazer, said the firm settled to avoid a costly legal battle and denies any wrongdoing.