U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar joined Congress six years ago with reported debts between $25,000 and $65,000. Her most recent financial disclosure, filed in May 2025, reveals combined assets with her husband, Tim Mynett, now worth $6 million to $30 million. This sharp rise over one term has sparked questions, especially as federal fraud cases multiply across Minnesota.
Mynett started Rose Lake Capital in Washington, D.C., in 2022. Omar’s 2023 filing showed the firm’s assets under $1,000. By 2024, she reported its value at $5 million to $25 million. The company’s website claims it manages $60 billion in more than 80 countries and employs five diplomats, but no outside sources confirm these details. Omar listed no income from the firm in 2024, compared to $15,000 to $50,000 the year before.
The website once named nine high-profile Democrats as officers and advisors, such as former Obama Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli, ex-Senator and Ambassador to China Max Baucus, former DNC Treasurer William Derrough, and Keith Mestrich, former CEO of Amalgamated Bank. These names vanished after federal charges hit Minnesota in September and October 2025. None of them face any wrongdoing claims.
Massive Fraud in Minnesota Programs
Federal prosecutors say at least half of the $18 billion sent to 14 Minnesota social programs since 2018 went to fraud. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson noted that investigators uncover $50 million in schemes every day. The Feeding Our Future scandal sits at the heart of it all, called the biggest pandemic relief fraud in U.S. history.
Scammers allegedly took $250 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. They used fake invoices, made-up attendance sheets, and claims of meals at nonexistent locations to pretend they fed millions of kids. Founder Aimee Bock and co-defendant Salim Said, who owns Minneapolis’s Safari Restaurant, got convicted in March 2025. So far, 59 people have been convicted, with over 90 charged in total.
The fraud touched other areas too, like housing aid, autism therapy, and disability services. In December 2025, five people faced charges for stealing from the Housing Stability Services Program. One scheme billed Medicaid $6 million falsely through an autism program, pulling in kids from Minneapolis’s Somali community and handing cash to their parents. Search warrants hit Integrated Community Supports, which helps disabled adults; its payments to providers soared to $180 million a year by 2025, up from its 2021 launch. Governor Tim Walz called for an outside audit, due by late January 2026.
Omar’s Links to the Scandals
Omar faces no charges herself. Still, three people with reported connections to her show up in indictments. Guhaad Hashi Said, labeled a campaign enforcer by her 2025 Republican rival, got hit with conspiracy charges over a site that claimed to serve 5,000 meals a day. Her campaign took donations from at least three now-convicted fraudsters, but she gave the money back after their convictions.
On March 11, 2020, Omar pushed the MEALS Act, which let the Agriculture Department skip some school meal program rules during the pandemic. Fraudsters took advantage of those relaxed checks. Prosecutors zeroed in on Safari Restaurant, which allegedly got over $16 million in stolen funds. Co-owner Salim Said testified that the money affected local politics.
Risky Business Deals and Probes
Mynett’s eStCru winery appeared in Omar’s 2024 filing at $1 million to $5 million. It drew a 2021 California lawsuit from investor Naeem Mohd, who sent $300,000 to Mynett and partner Will Hailer with promises of 200 percent returns in 18 months. Mohd got back only his original amount. The suit accused them of false claims.
Hailer settled a $1.2 million debt with South Dakota cannabis companies in August 2024. Their eSt Ventures pitched tripling $3.54 million fast; Mynett said he left in early 2022 but stayed listed as co-founder in records. The National Legal and Policy Center lodged an ethics complaint in June 2024, saying Mynett underreported assets. Lawyer Paul Kamenar raised flags about the quick wealth buildup.
About 89 percent of Feeding Our Future defendants are Somali Americans, stirring talk of unfair focus versus organized crime. Conspirators blew cash on luxuries: Ahmed Ghedi spent $245,000 on cars, ran up $200,000 in credit cards, and dropped $560,000 on a south Minneapolis mansion. Said bought a pickup truck, his wife a Mercedes, and they got a $1.1 million Plymouth home with an indoor basketball court. The Treasury tracks if any money reached al-Shabaab in Somalia. FBI Director Kash Patel sent extra agents to Minnesota. The Government Accountability Office puts yearly U.S. fraud losses at $233 billion to $521 billion. House Republicans question Governor Walz’s watch; no formal review targets Omar’s finances yet. As probes drag on, the hidden scale over seven years highlights dangers to public money and the need for better protections.
Sources:
U.S. Attorney Announces Federal Charges Against 47 Defendants in $250 Million Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme” – U.S. Department of Justice
“Oversight of Feeding Our Future – Special Review” – Office of the Legislative Auditor, State of Minnesota
“Minnesota Department of Education: Oversight of Feeding Our Future – Special Review” – Minnesota Department of Education / Office of the Legislative Auditor
“Fraud Risk Management: 2018–2022 Data Show Federal Government Loses an Estimated $233 Billion to $521 Billion Annually to Fraud” (GAO-24-105833) – U.S. Government Accountability Office