The $280 Million Company Built on Veterans' Disability Claims
Published October 10, 2026
Trajector Medical, a Florida company that charged veterans as much as $20,000 for help with VA disability claims, reported nearly $280 million in combined income in 2025. On July 23, 2026, Trajector and 21 affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after 28 states restricted the unaccredited-fee business, revenue fell roughly 60%, and the attorneys general of New York and Illinois opened fraud investigations. Its rise exploited a 2006 congressional gap that removed criminal penalties for charging veterans for assistance the law says should be free.
In 2025, a Florida company called Trajector Medical made nearly $280 million. Its business: charging U.S. military veterans fees — sometimes as much as $20,000 — for help with their VA disability claims. On July 23, 2026, Trajector Medical and 21 affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, under case number 3:26-bk-03286-JAB, with the Veterans of Foreign Wars warning that roughly 180,000 veterans and other benefit recipients may hold claims against the bankruptcy estates.
The company's rise was built on a gap Congress left open. Federal law says assistance with initial VA disability claims must be offered free of charge by accredited providers — but in 2006, Congress eliminated the criminal penalties for violating that rule while leaving the underlying ban intact. Into the unenforced gap stepped companies like Trajector — formerly Vet Comp & Pen Medical Consulting — which marketed paid ‘medical evidence’ services to veterans. NPR's investigation found the company's ‘CallBot’ robo-dialer phoning into the VA benefits hotline, entering veterans' Social Security numbers, and monitoring their accounts for benefit increases — then mailing out bills even to veterans whose increases Trajector had nothing to do with.
For a while, the machine printed money. Bankruptcy filings show the Trajector group employed more than 450 staff, held roughly $405 million in assets, and booked combined income of nearly $280 million in 2025. CEO Jim Hill drew a $600,000 base salary with potential bonuses of $600,000 per quarter, and in September 2025 he and his wife bought a $5.75 million oceanfront home in St. Augustine — listed in the bankruptcy filings as the company's ‘principal offices,’ though not as a company asset. Trajector has denied the fraud allegations, telling NPR it stands behind how it operates.
Then the law caught up. Since 2024, 28 states had passed laws restricting or banning fees charged by unaccredited claims companies; Trajector suspended services in 23 states, and its medical-evidence revenue in the first half of 2026 fell about 60 percent from the year before. Two class-action lawsuits were filed by veterans in the spring of 2026, and after NPR's reporting the attorneys general of New York and Illinois told the bankruptcy court they were investigating Trajector for ‘fraudulent, illegal and deceptive business practices,’ arguing the money collected from veterans was gathered through illegality and ‘should not be considered property of the estate.’ The bankruptcy froze the lawsuits — but not the investigators. And five days before the filing, Trajector had been poised to default on a nearly $63 million loan balance owed to Deutsche Bank.
The wreckage extends beyond the company. About 180,000 customers — veterans who paid for a service the law says should have been free — may now be creditors. A bankruptcy judge extended the claims deadline to October 31, 2026, and veterans advocates are urging anyone who paid Trajector to file. But as a former bankruptcy judge told NPR, corporate bankruptcy has no fraud exception: veterans owed refunds stand in line with every other creditor, treated the same as anyone else owed money.
The deeper lesson belongs to the gap itself. A former Army Ranger who refused to pay Trajector's bill put it plainly to NPR: when the system makes benefits hard to navigate, someone will fill the vacuum — and charge for it. Trajector's $280 million year wasn't built on manufacturing anything; it was built on positioning itself between veterans and the benefits they were already owed. The fortune evaporated the moment enough states started enforcing what the law had always said.
The lesson: A fortune built on charging people for what they were already owed is a fortune on a legal deadline.
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