As Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) tells it, she and her husband, Tim Mynett, are on the precipice of financial ruin. The embattled lawmaker told MSNOW she lives a "basic" paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle and struggles to pay rent on her two homes—in the same Wednesday interview during which, asked whether she was related in any way to her previous husband before Mynett, she responded, "Not to my knowledge." Omar also claimed no wrongdoing in revising her 2024 reported net worth from up to $30 million down to no more than $65,000 due to a dubious "accounting error."
But Omar's financial situation is anything but basic. It includes enviable taxpayer-funded perks that she accepts as a member of Congress to cover her living expenses, millions of dollars that her campaign paid her husband’s former consulting firm, and a mysterious $11.25 million cash infusion that her husband's venture capital company received from an Indian billionaire in 2024. Omar mentioned none of this on Wednesday when sympathetic MSNOW host Chris Hayes inquired about her financial situation.
"I mean, it's, you know, working, working-class, I guess, like paycheck to paycheck still," Omar said. "You know, we've got four kids. And, you know, we live, I think, like a basic life. I have a Toyota Camry that's from 2016. It's our only car. I rent my D.C. place and my Minneapolis place. And so, I mean, I don't know if that sounds like, you know, not majority of Congress, but there's some of us that are, that don't come from wealth and don't have wealth."
Omar's claim that she struggles to keep up with rent on her Washington, D.C., home defies belief. Taxpayers have paid that bill for the past several years. The Minnesota Democrat has received $85,000 in taxpayer funds to cover her D.C. lodging expenses as part of a fringe congressional benefit activated in early 2023. Omar, who earns a base salary of $174,000 before the housing stipend, hasn't had to worry about rising grocery costs either, because taxpayers have taken on that bill as well: She has raked in $33,000 from taxpayers since 2023 from another fringe benefit that covers the cost of her daily meals, according to House spending records.
Omar's campaign also paid her husband's consulting firm, E Street Group, nearly $3 million between 2018 and 2020, much of which landed directly in her husband's pocket after they married in 2020 (Omar reported Mynett received distributions of up to $2 million from his company when adding the figures she reported in her 2020 and 2021 financial disclosures). Omar's campaign payments to her husband's firm drew intense scrutiny, and Mynett shuttered the E Street Group in 2022.
From there, Mynett teamed up with former DNC adviser Will Hailer to launch a series of hamfisted business ventures, including a California winery, a South Dakota-based marijuana investment firm, and an international venture capital firm called Rose Lake Capital, all of which found themselves mired in lawsuits and allegations of fraud by 2024, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Mynett and Hailer's businesses resolved their debts and disputes by the end of 2024, shortly after Rose Lake Capital received a mysterious infusion of $11.25 million from an Indian billionaire.
Investors sued Mynett and Hailer's marijuana venture, Badlands, for $1.7 million alleging fraud after Hailer told them in writing he couldn't repay their funds because the Office of Foreign Assets Control (a Treasury Department agency that enforces sanctions against alleged international terrorists) had seized control of its accounts. Their winery, eStCru, stopped paying employees in 2023 and, by February 2024, had just $650 in its bank account as it owed another investor $780,000 to settle a separate fraud allegation.
And then Mynett and Hailer struck gold with Byju Raveendran, the Indian billionaire owner of the now-bankrupt educational technology firm Byju.
Hailer testified in those bankruptcy proceedings that Rose Lake Capital received two wires from Byju in June 2024, totaling $11.25 million, in connection with a failed deal to acquire the $1.2 billion leveraged loan at the center of the bankruptcy case. Hailer testified that the funds were routed to Rose Lake "from Dubai to Mauritius to the UK to the USA" and that, days later, Byju demanded the return of the funds.
It's unclear whether Rose Lake Capital ever returned Byju's $11.25 million. By the end of 2024, Mynett and Hailer's winery and marijuana businesses settled their respective fraud lawsuits with cash settlements, and Rose Lake Capital distributed $213,000 to Mynett, according to records reviewed in April by the Wall Street Journal. One of their investors told the New York Post he was "shocked" Mynett and Hailer obtained the money to settle the lawsuit after claiming financial insolvency just months earlier.
Rose Lake Capital's $11.25 million cash infusion in June 2024 may be the nexus of Omar's infamous $30 million accounting error in her 2024 financial disclosure. She first reported last year that her husband's stake in Rose Lake Capital was worth up to $25 million, and his winery was worth up to $5 million at the end of 2024.
But in April, Omar filed an amended report revising her and her husband's 2024 net worth down to no more than $65,000 and that his companies were worthless on paper. Her office told the Free Beacon that Mynett's accountant made the elementary accounting error of failing to account for business liabilities when calculating their worth.
Omar painted a dire picture of her financial standing Wednesday as she faces an active federal investigation into whether she or her late father lied on immigration paperwork to obtain their U.S. citizenship. Federal agents searched Omar's home and seized her phone last Monday under a court-approved warrant and have interviewed other members of her family, including her older sister, Sahra Noor. Authorities have also reportedly obtained DNA evidence they could use to corroborate allegations that Omar married her brother, Ahmed Elmi, who now lives in London. Prosecutors referred to Omar as "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar," in a court filing Wednesday.
The criminal investigation isn't limited to Omar's immigration status. U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro said Monday her office is probing the Minnesota congresswoman's financial disclosures.
"We're looking at the facts. Based upon the facts, we'll follow them wherever they take us," Pirro told Axios as she confirmed Omar's financial affairs are also under investigation.
President Donald Trump on Thursday wrote on Truth Social, "Because she used a fake name to be sworn in, I assume she must IMMEDIATELY resign from Congress."
Omar denounced the investigation as an attempt to weaponize federal law enforcement.
"For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation," she said in a statement last Monday. "I will not be silenced."
