Ilhan Omar Failed To Report Assets Stemming From Husband's Shady Wine and Weed Ventures, Ethics Complaint Charges
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) failed to report tens of thousands of dollars in assets that stemmed from her husband's shady wine and marijuana business ventures, a federal ethics complaint obtained by the Washington Free Beacon charges.
The National Legal and Policy Center, led by Paul Kamenar, filed the complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics on Tuesday. The complaint dings Omar for "failing to accurately report the financial assets, transactions, and liabilities of her spouse," Tim Mynett, citing discrepancies in Omar's personal financial disclosures. Those discrepancies "deserve to be fully investigated," Kamenar said.
The complaint comes roughly three weeks after a Minnesota Reformer report highlighted Mynett's shady business ventures in the wine and marijuana industries, which have prompted lawsuits from disgruntled investors.
Mynett and his longtime business partner, Will Hailer, started a wine business, eStCru, that attracted a $300,000 investment from Naeem Mohd, a Washington, D.C., restaurant owner with ties to Democratic politics. Mynett and Hailer also started a marijuana venture, partnering with growers in South Dakota. Both businesses collapsed and led to lawsuits, with Mynett and Hailer's wine business investor and marijuana business partners suing for fraud and breach of contract.
Omar, Kamenar's complaint says, failed to adequately disclose the value of those business ventures before they unraveled.
In her 2021 disclosure—which Omar filed roughly one year after Mohd's $300,000 investment—Omar claimed her husband's stake in eStCru was worth between $15,000 and $50,000, well below Mohd's $300,000 investment. One year later, Omar reported that her husband's stake was worth between $50,000 and $100,000.
Omar also reported spousal income from "EstVenture LLC"—one of Mynett's former companies involved in the failed marijuana venture—of up to $15,000 in 2021 and up to $50,000 in 2022. At the same time, Omar reported that her husband's stake in the LLC was worth no more than $1,000.
Those stakes, according to Kamenar's complaint, were not properly disclosed. If Mynett was an equal partner with Hailer in the wine business following the $300,000 investment Mohd made in September 2021, the company would have had to have gone through a catastrophic loss to place the business's value at no more than $50,000 at the end of the year, when assets are evaluated.
As a result, Kamenar wrote in the complaint, the Office of Congressional Ethics "should initiate a 'preliminary inquiry'" before referring the matter to the House Ethics Committee, which conducts investigations into members who may have violated ethical rules.
Omar, who did not respond to a request for comment, has a long history of propping up her husband's business ventures.
Omar's campaign sent Mynett's consulting firm, E Street Group, a whopping $2.9 million during the 2020 election cycle, which marked nearly 80 percent of the firm's payments. She repeatedly defended the payments, saying, "I don't pay my husband, I pay the firm to do work," and arguing that it would be "stupid" to cut off the firm.
Omar went on to do just that, announcing in November 2020—shortly after she secured reelection and paid Mynett's firm millions—that she would no longer work with the firm. At that point, Mynett turned to his wine business, the Free Beacon reported in February 2021.
This is also not the first time Omar has faced complaints over improperly disclosed assets. In 2020, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed a complaint alleging that Omar failed to disclose assets and income stemming from her memoir, This is What America Looks Like. Omar reportedly sold the book for six figures in May 2020 but did not disclose income from the book at the time.
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