CHICAGO (NewsNation) — NewsNation’s “Rush Hour” spoke to an expert who said the private military contracting business accounts for $240 billion per year across the world, but the dangers to those in the business are real.

Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, died on duty in Ukraine. The company he worked for still remains unknown, but Cancel was an American citizen.

Private military contractors are hired for protection, not combat missions. The companies normally look for veterans or people with law enforcement experience, and they recruit all around the globe.

Rene de Nevers, an international affairs professor at Syracuse, says the work can be lucrative. Wealthy families desperate to get people out of Ukraine may hire a private contractor.

But, if something goes wrong, there may not be a cavalry coming in to help.

“The problem in Ukraine is that at this point, I think it’s highly unlikely that the U.S. government would authorize any U.S. company to work there because we’re working very hard not to give the Russians a pretext to expand, to see NATO and the U.S. as actively involved in the conflict,” said de Nevers.

Cancel’s family says he served as a Marine and worked as a full-time corrections officer in Tennessee, making him a prime candidate to be a private military contractor.

The use of these contractors grew in popularity during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military used them to organize logistics on bases and to help with security. Some blame the quick demise of the Afghan government last August on military contractors leaving the country with the American soldiers.

Russia has military contractors, too. de Nevers says they are more dangerous because there isn’t as much oversight or accountability, and they are embedded within the Russian forces.