Squad member Ilhan Omar accused of failing to report tens of thousands in assets from her husband's shady wine and weed business ventures
Rep. Ilhan Omar is facing a new ethics complaint alleging she did not report tens of thousands of dollars in assets from her husband's weed and alcohol business.
Since Omar and Tim Mynett, a Democratic operative, wed in 2020, there has been scrutiny over his business ventures.
Now, there is a scathing new complaint against Mynett following a Minnesota Reformer report. It states that he is being sued for failing to properly pay back his business investors.
It calls on the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to launch a 'preliminary inquiry' before referring the matter to the House Ethics Committee.
Mynett's business partner Will Hailer secured a $300,000 investment from D.C. restaurateur Naeem Mohd to start a wine business, eStCru, in 2021.
Rep. Ilhan Omar is facing a new ethics complaint alleging she did not report tens of thousands of dollars in assets from her husband's weed and alcohol business
The pair promised to triple Mohd's investment in just 18 months. Hailer and Mynett had founded consulting firm E Street Group - which the Omar campaign paid $3 million in 2020 - together.
They'd been paid in grapes by a former client and hired a respected Sonoma winemaker to turn that into wine they would sell, then pay back Mohd $900,000.
They promised that if they didn't pay Mohd $900,000 in a year and a half, they would take on a 10 percent monthly interest, according to a contract obtained by the reformer.
However, Mynett and Hailer only paid Mohd $300,000, about a month late, according to according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Mohd.
The pair's winemaker, Erica Stancliff, said she stopped getting paid in early 2023 and was forced to resign after months without pay.
Around the same time - April 2023 - Hailer and Mynett's other companies agreed to pay $1.7 million to three South Dakota marijuana entrepreneurs after a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of contract.
The pair only paid $500,000 and agreed they still owe $1.2 million.
In her 2021 disclosure, the same year as Mohd's investment, Omar claimed her husband's stake in eStCru was worth between $15,000 and $50,000. One year later, Omar reported her husband's stake was worth between $50,000 and $100,000.
In 2023, it was back down to $15,000-$50,000 according to her disclosure.
According to Kamenar, if Mynett was an equal partner in the wine business following the $300,000 investment Mohd made in September 2021, the company would have had to have gone through massive losses to only be worth $50,000 by 2022.
