Minn. Lawmakers Need Reply From Omar on Meals Fraud; Monetary Disclosure Amended; Pretend Vineyard Shut Down
Far-left Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is facing yet another inquiry beyond the big question about the “accounting error” that led to the claim she was a millionaire on her financial disclosures.
Minnesota state lawmakers want to know what Omar knows about the massive welfare/food fraud scheme run by Somalis in the state. But she won’t testify before a committee of the state House of Representatives.
Beyond that, however, Omar might have committed a felony, GOP House Oversight Committee chieftain James Comer of Kentucky says, because of the amendment of her financial disclosure because of the “accounting error.”
Add to that the sudden closure of a “winery” that husband Tim Mynett owned that did not make wine.
Hiding in D.C.?
GOP lawmakers in Minnesota, The Center Square reported, want the 411 on “Omar’s role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme as investigations and prosecutions continue.”
The Feeding Our Future scam involved fleecing the federal taxpayers out of some $250 million in Covid-19 subsidies. Another big fraud scheme, uncovered last year, in involved daycare centers that cared for no children, but the the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee focused on Feeding our Future, and “Omar’s sponsorship of federal legislation in 2020 that expanded access to child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic,” The Center Square noted:
Committee chair Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, said she was frustrated with Omar’s refusal to testify or appear before the committee. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, also a Democrat, also did not appear.
“They are both key players in the child nutrition scandal and fraud — billions of our tax dollars that were stolen — and neither of them came to answer questions about their involvement,” Robbins told The Center Square in an exclusive interview.
Omar ignored the committee’s inquiries, while Ellison said he had already testified. That raises the observation that the committee can compel the two testify with a subpoena, as permitted by law.
Omar sponsored a giveaway called the MEALS Act, which dropped security measures to stop fraud, the website noted:
“She took the guardrails off so billions of our tax dollars could be stolen,” Robbins said. “It was her particular bill … that got rid of the guardrails in this program.”
During the hearing, Robbins played a 2020 clip of Omar promoting the program to Somali-speaking constituents and praising a Minneapolis restaurant later tied to the fraud.
“I’m very thankful for Safari for being part of those places where food is being given out,” Omar said in the video. “Each day, Safari gives out 2,300 family and kids’ meals.”
That restaurant’s co-owner oversaw the fraud with Feeding Our Future’s executive director.
Robbins’ committee “is expected to send follow-up letters and continue its investigation, though it only has one hearing remaining this session.” In other words, Omar will skate away without answering questions. She should receive a subpoena.
Financial Disclosure
The Wall Street Journal disclosed on April 17 that Omar amended her financial disclosure.
As JP reported last year, citing the Washington Free Beacon, Omar’s disclosure in 2025 said she was worth up to $30 million.
“Omar reported in her latest financial disclosure that she and her husband, former political consultant Tim Mynett, accumulated a net worth at the end of 2024 ranging from at least $6 million to $30 million,” the website reported:
Their wealth is derived almost entirely from the value of Mynett’s ownership stake in his two companies that, together, were worth no more than $51,000 at the end of 2023.… [T]the figures in Omar’s latest disclosures show that her and her husband’s net worth skyrocketed by at least 3,500 percent in just one year.
But Omar amended the disclosure, the Journal reported, to reflect her and her husband’s assets at $18,004 to $95,000. Omar’s mouthpieces claimed that she didn’t notice the error because she doesn’t involve herself in her husband’s businesses. She amended the filing because of an inquiry by the Office of Congressional Conduct, to which her attorney responded by letter.
“Omar’s amended filing shows between $102,503 and $1,005,200 in 2024 income from the assets she and her husband own,” the Journal continued:
Documentation attached to the lawyer’s letter shows $213,200 in distributions to her husband from his venture-capital management firm in 2024 and $3,000 from the winery.
A 2025 email between Omar’s husband and his accountant states the venture capital management firm is valued at $7.9 million and the winery at $1.5 million. He owns roughly a third of both businesses, according to tax documents included with the lawyer’s letter.
The new disclosure shows Omar, 43 years old, has $15,001 to $50,000 in student debt and $15,001 to $50,000 in credit-card debt.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Comer told Fox talker Sean Hannity that Omar might have committed a felony.
“Who makes a multimillion-dollar mistake on their financial disclosure form?” Comer asked Hannity:
Either her accountant went to one of those “Quality Learing Centers” in Minnesota, or she lied about it. If she lied about it, that’s a felony.
Comer’s “Quality Learing Centers,” Fox News noted, ridiculed one of the fraudulent daycare centers that misspelled its name on a sign.
Comer told Hannity that Omar could not have made the mistake she claimed to have made.
“You review that financial disclosure form,” he said:
Before you hit enter, you enter all the assets in, and then it pops up and you review it, and you hit it again, so it’s highly unlikely that she made the mistake.
Fake Winery Closed
In January, independent journalist Benny Johnson revealed that the winery owned by Omar’s husband and his partner, William Hailer, didn’t make wine, except for the whine from an investor who sued Mynett and Hailer.
The winery is called eStCru LLC, and in 2023 was valued at $15,000, Johnson reported on X. The next year, it was worth $5 million.
“This must be a very successful winery to grow that much in value over one year. Except … the winery does not even exist,” he continued:
– No phone line
– No physical winery
– Social media gone dark
– A barely functional ‘website’
– No wine lol
The Minnesota Reformer detailed a lawsuit filed by Naeem Mohd, a restaurateur in the Washington, D.C., area who invested $300,000 in the winery on the promise of a return that would triple his investment.
“The pair had been paid in grapes by a former client and had hired a well-respected Sonoma winemaker to turn those grapes into profit,” the website reported of the scam:
They promised if they didn’t pay Mohd the full $900,000 on time, they would tack on 10% monthly interest on any outstanding balance, according to the contract shared with the Reformer.
The offer might have seemed suspicious if not for the person making it: Tim Mynett, a well-connected political consultant and husband to U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom he married in 2020.
Mohd’s attorney, Faisal Gill, another top Democratic operative, recommended the investment.
“But 18 months came and went without Mohd receiving the 200% return he was promised from the winery, eStCru,” the website continued:
Mynett and Hailer only returned Mohd’s $300,000 — about a month late — according to a lawsuit Gill filed on behalf of Mohd in California last fall seeking at least $780,000.
The complaint, which has not been previously reported, claims the pair “fraudulently misrepresented … that estCru, LLC was a legitimate company.”
That lawsuit was settled, and it wasn’t the only legal trouble the pair had.
Now, the fake winery is closed.
The Free Beacon published a state certificate of cancellation that Hailer signed on April 4. “The move came nearly one year after the Minnesota Democrat filed a financial disclosure that listed the winery’s value at up to $5 million,” the website reported, “and roughly a week after Omar amended the disclosure to state that the winery had no value at all.”