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By Hugh Cameron and Joshua Rhett Miller
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A California winery owned by Representative Ilhan Omar's husband was shut down weeks after Congressional Republicans demanded answers about the reported wealth of the Minnesota Democrat's family.
Omar, a member of the Squad of progressive Democrats and a political lightning rod, filed a 2024 financial disclosure that put her family assets at between $6 million and $30 million, a surge from the previous year that—at the top of that range—would have placed her among the wealthiest Democrats in the House.
At the heart of the wealth was a Santa Rosa, California-based winery, eStCru LLC, which was co-owned by Omar’s husband Tim Mynett. California business records show the winery shut down on April 4, two months after House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer wrote to Mynett asking for financial records.
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In March, Omar revised the filing—a common practice among members of Congress—and downgraded the assets to $0 and the joint assets with her husband to under $100,000. The amended filing also shows that the congresswoman held $15,001 to $50,000 in student loan debt. Omar’s representatives blamed the discrepancy on "incomplete information from Mr. Mynett’s businesses' accountants in good faith and deference to professional judgment."
"The amended disclosure confirms what we've said all along: the Congresswoman is not a millionaire," Jacklyn Rogers, a spokesperson for Omar, told Newsweek. Rogers added that the original filing listed the assets without their respective liabilities and "significantly overstated" Mynett's net worth.
A representative for eStCru told the New York Post in February that the winery was no longer operational, and, according to the California Secretary of State's business registry portal, it was terminated on April 4.
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Ilhan Omar’s Net Worth
Fluctuations in Omar's reported net worth have intensified GOP scrutiny of the Democratic lawmaker, including from President Donald Trump, who in January said Congress and the Department of Justice would be "looking at" her finances.
Last May, Omar filed a financial disclosure valuing her and her husband’s assets in the range of $6 million to $30 million.
Up to $5 million of this was derived from eStCru LLC, with as much as $25 million coming from Rose Lake Capital LLC, a venture capital management firm. Mynett had helped establish both companies alongside his long-term business partner, William Hailer.
Financial disclosure rules require lawmakers to report assets within broad value ranges, and The Wall Street Journal cites 2025 estimates from Mynett’s accountant that his two assets, the winery and a venture capital management firm, which comprised most of this total, were together worth $9.4 million.
These 2024 figures marked a significant increase from the previous year’s filing, which valued eStCru at between $15,001 and $50,000 and Rose Lake Capital at between $1 and $1,000.
The one-year jump attracted the attention of Republican members of Congress—Comer's letter to Mynett requested further information on both ventures and noted "serious public concerns about how your businesses increased so dramatically in value only a year after reporting very limited assets."
In late March, Omar amended her financial disclosure for 2024, reducing the value of the two assets to "none" and the overall value of the couple’s assets to between $18,004 to $95,000. The amendment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and came after Omar received a letter from the Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC). The Minnesota representative has since blamed the discrepancy on an error made by her accountant.
"As the busiest of people, it is very common for members and their spouses to rely on learned professionals like accountants to make calculations and determinations that appear on public filings," her lawyer said in a letter responding to the OCC, the Journal reported. "While the error is of course unfortunate, there is nothing untoward and nothing illegal has occurred."
Mynett’s Business Interests
According to the California Secretary of State's business registry portal, eStCru LLC was officially terminated on April 4, meaning it is permanently shuttered and no longer exists under state law.
The winery was subject to a lawsuit in 2023 from an investor who alleged he had been misled into investing $300,000 into the business and that Mynett and Hailer had "fraudulently misrepresented…that eStCru LLC was a legitimate company."
"ESTCRU LLC like many wineries is living invoice to invoice, sale to sale to stay afloat given the economic conditions of the industry," Hailer told Minnesota Reformer in response to an article on the lawsuit published in June 2024.
In February of this year, a spokesperson for eStCru told the New York Post that the company was "no longer operational," and would generate no further income for Mynett from 2025 onward.
Currently, eStCRu's website is inactive, and the company has no recent social media presence—its last Instagram post was in January 2023.
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Alongside the winery, Rose Lake Capital LLC accounted for a significant portion of Omar’s previously reported wealth. According to her initial disclosure form, Omar derived no income from the asset, which was valued at between $5 million and $25 million in 2024, or $7.9 million, according to Mynett's accountant. In the March filing, the value of the asset has been amended to zero, though the amount of income derived rose to between $100,001 and $1 million.
In 2024, Hailer told Minnesota Reformer that the company was a "dormant entity," having shifted into a new company called Rose Lake Inc. The website for Rose Lake Capital LLC is no longer operational. Archived versions, accessed through the Wayback Machine, show that it was online until at least mid-February and that it listed Omar’s husband as a founder and co-partner.
Attempts to reach Mynett were unsuccessful. A spokesperson for the companies told Newsweek they were unaware if the House Ethics Committee provides any training or guidance for accountants who are regularly relied on by members of Congress and their spouses for financial reporting, and that Mynett and Omar have fixed their errant report.
The spokesperson confirmed that the winery had filed articles of termination in April and that Rose Lake will also terminate its corporate entities in 2026. Omar's spokesperson said the congresswoman is "not involved in her husband’s businesses" and therefore cannot comment on details regarding them.
Rogers told Newsweek that the original "accounting error," which originally listed assets in the $6 million to $30 million range, had "created a misleading picture of far greater wealth," and added that Omar "amended her disclosures voluntarily as soon as the discrepancy was identified."
No evidence has emerged that the business closure was linked to congressional inquiries, and neither Omar nor Mynett is accused of wrongdoing.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, was asked for his thoughts on Omar’s finances on Thursday by a reporter for Lindell TV, responding the issue had “not been brought to [his] attention.”
“But we do know that Ilhan Omar, who works hard on behalf of the people that she represents in Minnesota, is constantly under attack by right-wing conspiracy theorists,” Jeffries said, adding Congress’ focus was on stopping the “reckless war of choice” in Iran, “getting the economy back on track” and other issues besides the representative’s finances.
However, to some Republicans, the drastic drop in Omar’s reported net worth will not relieve her from congressional scrutiny, with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer on April 21 calling the matter "incompetence at best and a cover-up at worst."
"Ilhan cannot escape accountability much longer. Investigations are ongoing in House committees," he added.
Update 4/24/26, 9:15 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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