Isn’t it remarkable how often politicians arrive in Washington with modest means and somehow leave astonishingly wealthy? Congress, it seems, has a way of turning public service into a personal gold mine.
Take Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05), whose district includes a large portion of Minneapolis — that increasingly troubled outpost some have dubbed the Mogadishu of the Midwest. By multiple accounts, Omar entered Congress with little to her name. Today, however, she is reportedly worth more than $30 million.
At the same time, her husband’s venture capital firm has experienced a sudden and eye-opening surge in success. Now, as scrutiny begins to close in on this sudden and suspicious success, Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, and his firm, Rose Lake Capital, appear to be feeling the heat.
With questions mounting, reports indicate the company is moving quickly to scrub its books — never a reassuring sign:
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-MN) 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 Minnesota.
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 charged.
“Right under her nose,” of course, assumes Rep. Ilhan Omar was somehow oblivious to the fraud swirling around her. Forgive the skepticism. That benefit of the doubt wears thin, especially when paired with similar questions surrounding Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Walz may not have personally pocketed any of the money, but it strains credibility to believe he was completely unaware of what was happening on his watch. At best, he appears to have looked the other way — unwilling to direct his attention, let alone his authority, toward a sprawling scandal that has now become impossible to ignore.
And like so many government failures and abuses, this one traces back to the COVID debacle — a period marked by rushed spending, suspended oversight, and bureaucrats handing out massive sums of taxpayer money with little concern for accountability:
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 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 meals 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.
That opened the door for fraud, which includes food programs and daycares as well; the extent of these schemes is still unfolding. Returning to Omar’s husband and his business misdeeds, though:
Between September and October — when federal prosecutors announced charges to eight more individuals, including six of Somali descent, for their roles in the welfare scheme — the names and bios of Rose Lake Capitals’s nine officers and advisors were removed from the website. None of them were charged in the fraud.
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%.
There’s far too much smoke here for there not to be a fire somewhere in the haze.
At the center of it all is a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ilhan Omar, who has publicly pledged allegiance to Somalia, routinely disparages the United States — the country that granted her refuge and citizenship — and operates within a political ecosystem now saturated with corruption allegations. The scale of the fraud tied to that community is so brazen it would have made Huey Long blush.
Meanwhile, her husband has pulled off a miracle in one of the most cutthroat arenas on earth. In the brutally competitive world of venture capital, he has gone from virtual obscurity to a serious player in a matter of months. At the same time, Omar’s own personal net worth has reportedly skyrocketed. We’re told this is all coincidence, of course.
But history suggests otherwise. This is how socialism has always worked. From the riverfront dachas of the Soviet Politburo, to Bernie Sanders and his three comfortable homes, to now Omar’s sudden enrichment, socialist politicians have an uncanny habit of growing wealthy while preaching “equity” to everyone else.
The bad news is that Omar’s House seat is likely safe for as long as she wants it. The good news — at least from an accountability standpoint — is that if she can be directly tied to these fraud schemes, serious legal questions come into play. Citizenship can be revoked under certain circumstances. And if she is proven to have abused her position to advance foreign interests or profit from corruption, there is a compelling argument that she should be returned to the country whose interests she so often seems determined to represent.
