Dan Sullivan Corruption & Ethics Military Alaska

The VA Calls Veterans Guardian a 'Claims Shark.' Its Founders Wrote $88,600 in Checks to Dan Sullivan's Fundraising Committee.

Veterans Guardian charges disabled veterans for help the VA gives free, and a federal judge has ruled it broke federal law. In March its two founders gave $88,600 to Dan Sullivan's joint fundraising committee, which passed the money to the Senate Republicans' campaign arm. One founder has also given Sullivan's own campaign $6,000.

MAGA Report Cards · Oct 04, 2026

The VA Calls Veterans Guardian a 'Claims Shark.' Its Founders Wrote $88,600 in Checks to Dan Sullivan's Fundraising Committee. — Photo: Alex Brandon / AP, via American Journal News

The founders of a company the Department of Veterans Affairs calls a "claims shark" have been writing big checks to Dan Sullivan.

American Journal News reported on the money from Scott Greenblatt and William Taylor Jr., the founders and CEOs of Veterans Guardian. Federal filings show $94,600 from the two of them went through committees carrying Sullivan's name.

What Veterans Guardian does

Veterans Guardian is a for-profit company that says it helps veterans file disability claims with the VA. It charges veterans fees for that help.

The catch: veterans can get that help for free. The VA, and accredited nonprofits like the VFW and American Legion, help veterans file claims at no charge — and under VA rules, even accredited attorneys and claims agents may charge fees only after the VA has decided a veteran's initial claim.

That's why the VA calls companies like this "claims sharks." According to American Journal News, the VA sent Veterans Guardian cease-and-desist letters in 2017 and 2024.

It gets worse:

In a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2020, a former Veterans Guardian employee alleged that the company routinely assigns new clients a mental illness to inflate their disability rating, and that a team working with it prepares false medical records for VA claims. Her lawyers describe her claim as a business model "wholly grounded in fraud."
This year, a federal judge ruled against the company twice. In May, the court found that it charges and collects fees "in violation of federal law" — in one case, $21,360 from a veteran filing his first claim, which he could have filed for free. By August, the judge had ruled it ran a predatory business model in violation of North Carolina's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The money

Federal Election Commission records show:

In March 2026, Greenblatt and Taylor each gave $44,300 to Put Alaska First — $88,600 together. Put Alaska First is a joint fundraising committee for Sullivan's campaign, his leadership PAC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. (Greenblatt, Taylor)
All of it went on to the NRSC, the Senate Republicans' campaign arm. The NRSC's own filings record both checks on the same days as "transfer from Put Alaska First". That is party money raised through Sullivan's committee, and the party spends it to keep Republican senators like him in office.
Sullivan's own campaign has $6,000 from Greenblatt: $5,000 in March 2023, and $1,000 in August 2025 that came through his Sullivan Victory committee. Taylor has not given to Sullivan's campaign.

The bill he hasn't backed

There is a bill in Congress aimed squarely at this business. The SAFEGUARD Veterans Act of 2026 would bring back criminal penalties for unaccredited operators who charge veterans unauthorized fees for help with VA disability claims. Congress removed those penalties in 2006, and the head of the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers says the lack of enforcement has "caused these companies to proliferate."

According to American Journal News, Sullivan has not endorsed the SAFEGUARD Act, the bill has not received a vote, and Veterans Guardian appeared to spend $1.8 million lobbying against it.

The company's political giving isn't limited to Alaska. In August we reported that Veterans Guardian's executives are Addison McDowell's biggest donors — and that he cosponsored a bill to make what they do legal.

Why it matters

Every dollar a claims company takes from a disabled veteran is a dollar of benefits that veteran earned through service and could have claimed for free. The bill that would stop it is sitting in Congress without a vote, and the senator whose committee raised the company founders' money hasn't put his name behind it.

What the filings show

The two founders of Veterans Guardian — a company the VA calls a "claims shark" and that a federal judge has ruled broke federal law — gave $88,600 to Dan Sullivan's joint fundraising committee in March, which sent it to the Senate Republicans' campaign arm, and Greenblatt has given Sullivan's own campaign $6,000. Sullivan has not endorsed the SAFEGUARD Veterans Act, which would restore criminal penalties for charging veterans unauthorized claim fees, while the company has spent an apparent $1.8 million lobbying against it.