(nypost.com)
Embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband’s venture capital firm quietly scrubbed key officer details — including former Obama officials — as scrutiny grows over the family’s skyrocketing wealth, The Post has learned.
Omar (D-Minn.) went from nearly broke to being worth up to $30 million in just a year — as a massive, up to $9 billion fraud scheme involving the Somali community in her district unfolded right under her nose in the North Star State.
Close to 90 people have been charged so far, including at least three with direct ties to the lefty “Squad” member, though she has not been accused of wrongdoing.
It was Somalia-born Omar — who was seen in a resurfaced video last month dishing out food in a restaurant now at the heart of the scandal — who introduced the legislation that critics say paved the way for what the feds have called the largest fraud of the pandemic.
The Jimmy Choo-wearing socialist introduced the MEALS Act in Congress in 2020, relaxing oversight of government-sponsored children’s meal programs during the pandemic, which critics say allowed fraudsters to claim they served millions of meals without verification, while pocketing millions of dollars in government subsidies.
Shortly after the scheme played out, Omar’s husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, launched Rose Lake Capital, a venture capital management firm, in 2022.
The company saw its reported value go from nearly zero in 2023 to between $5 million and $25 million in just a year, and touted its officers’ $60 billion in “previous” assets under management — an amount many Wall Street money managers only dream of.
“There’s a lot of strange things going on,” said Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center. “She was basically broke when she came into office and now she’s worth perhaps up to $30 million … she needs to come clean on these assets.”
Rose Lake Capital, which touts its “deep global networks built from on-the-ground work in more than 80 countries,” had less than $1,000 in assets in 2023, according to Omar’s financial disclosure.
Yet despite the reported windfall, the business’s only address is a WeWork in DC, according to its LinkedIn page.
Between September and October — when federal prosecutors announced charges against eight more individuals, including six of Somali descent, for their roles in the welfare scheme — the names and bios of Rose Lake Capital’s nine officers and advisers were removed from the website. None of them were charged in the fraud.
Here’s the latest on the Minnesota fraud scheme:
- Trump admin freezes all childcare payments to Minnesota after massive fraud allegations: ‘We have turned off the money spigot’
- Misspelled Minnesota day care closed last week, state claims — on same day owners told The Post it’s up and running
- Quality ‘Learing’ Center day care finally fixes its misspelled sign after national outrage
- House GOP Whip Tom Emmer calls for deportation of Somali fraudsters in Minnesota
These names include lobbyist and former Obama Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli; former Senator and Obama Ambassador to China Max Baucus; DNC Finance Chair associate Alex Hoffman; former DNC treasurer William Derrough; and former ex-CEO of Amalgamated Bank Keith Mestrich, who once described Amalgamated as “the institutional bank of the Democratic Party.”
Meanwhile, Mynett’s other business, a California winery that previously faced fraud allegations and was declared a failed venture in 2023, was suddenly worth between $1 million and $5 million in 2024 — a windfall of 9,900%.
The fraud case involved a wine investor suing Mynett in October 2023, accusing him of swindling him out of $900,000 as he “fraudulently misrepresented … that estCru, LLC was a legitimate company.” Mynett claimed he simply struggled to build a business during the pandemic.
The case settled out of court in November.
The winery, eStCru, at some point around 2022 promoted a line of wines with names like “Blockchain” and “The Devil’s Lie,” with a prestigious California winemaker saying she abruptly stopped getting paid in early 2023. The business was only worth between $15,000 and $50,000 in Omar’s financial disclosure that year, making the sudden windfall the next year even more puzzling.
It too is listed as operating out of a WeWork, and doesn’t appear to actually sell any wines anymore, according to extensive internet searches.
Despite the high worth placed on the business, its website is a broken link, the phone number is disconnected and the last social media post for the winery dates back to 2023.
“While working families were being ripped off by a massive welfare scam, Omar’s campaign took money from convicted fraudsters, her husband launched a firm that suddenly ballooned in value, and [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz looked the other way,” according to Kiersten Pels, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.
When she first took office in 2019, the left-wing “Squad” member declared a net worth between negative $25,000 and negative $65,000, claimed to own no assets and be only carrying student and car debt.
Now Omar’s assets have suddenly skyrocketed to anywhere between $6 million and $30 million, according to her latest financial disclosure — just months after the congresswoman dismissed claims that she was a millionaire as “ridiculous” and “categorically false.”
Her links to the Minnesota welfare scheme have started to come to light in recent weeks.
Her campaign received $7,400 in direct donations from at least three now-convicted fraudsters, though the “Squad” member insisted she returned the donations after the scandal broke.
She’s been closely linked to at least two individuals from Minnesota’s Somalian community who’ve been charged in the fraud.
One is Salim Ahmed Said, the co-owner of Minneapolis’ Safari Restaurant, where Omar held her 2018 congressional victory party.
Said was found guilty in August of stealing more than $12 million for serving 3.9 million “phantom” meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, blowing much of the money on a $2 million Minneapolis mansion and a $9,000-a-month shopping habit at Nordstrom, according to prosecutors.
“Does Ilhan Omar know these people? Are they from her wonderfully managed Home Country of Somalia?” President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform when the news of the charges first broke. “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great state, and billions of dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from.”
As the scam was underway in 2020, Omar even appeared on video at Safari Restaurant to praise the program.
“Every day Safari provides 2,300 meals to children and their families,” she boasted in Somali in the video, while being filmed handling trays of food in a parking lot with her pandemic-era facemask pulled down below her nose.
The other individual, Guhaad Hashi Said, worked on Omar’s campaign in 2018 and 2020, and pleaded guilty in August to running a fake food site called Advance Youth Athletic Development, where he falsely claimed to serve 5,000 meals a day and pocketed $3.2 million out of the food program.
On Capitol Hill last week, Omar said she had no regrets about introducing the MEALS Act.
“Absolutely not, it did help feed kids,” she told a reporter.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz — Kamala Harris’ former running mate — has also faced intense scrutiny for letting the scandal unfold on his watch.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote a letter calling for him to resign, and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) hinted at possible criminal charges.
“Ilhan Omar is as disingenuous as they come,” he told The Post Saturday. “She promotes socialist policies while cashing in a taxpayer-funded paycheck and sitting on tens of millions of dollars. At least now we have an explanation for why she’s so out of touch with the priorities of hardworking, everyday Minnesotans.”
The Treasury and Justice Department has already launched an investigation into the alleged money laundering.
When reached for comment, Omar’s communications director sent The Post a message saying the entire office was closed until Jan. 5 – without offering an alternative contact.
Mynett did not return The Post’s messages, and both his businesses’ numbers were not working.










