Winery tied to Ilhan Omar’s husband closes as Congress probes finances

A California winery co-owned by Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband was formally terminated last month, weeks after House Republicans opened an inquiry into a dramatic swing in the Minnesota Democrat’s reported household wealth.

EStCru LLC, a Santa Rosa-based wine label co-owned by Ms. Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, was terminated April 4, according to the California Secretary of State’s business registry portal, nine days after Ms. Omar filed an amended financial disclosure listing the business with no net value.

The closure comes amid scrutiny that followed Ms. Omar’s May 2025 financial disclosure, which reported her household assets at between $6 million and $30 million. Financial disclosure rules require lawmakers to report assets within broad ranges rather than exact figures. Within those ranges, up to $5 million was attributed to eStCru LLC, with as much as $25 million attributed to Rose Lake Capital LLC, a venture capital management firm also tied to Mr. Mynett — figures derived from self-reported accountant estimates, not independently audited valuations.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky sent a records request in February to Mr. Mynett, noting that the reported value of the two companies had increased from $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024. Mr. Comer wrote that because the companies do not publicly disclose their investors or funding sources, the jump raised questions about whether outside parties could be attempting to gain influence with Ms. Omar through her husband’s business dealings. Ms. Omar’s office called the inquiry “a political stunt” and said no evidence of wrongdoing has been presented.

Ms. Omar’s representatives blamed the valuation discrepancy on “incomplete information from Mr. Mynett’s businesses’ accountants in good faith and deference to professional judgment.” Spokeswoman Jacklyn Rogers said the amended disclosure “confirms what we’ve said all along: the Congresswoman is not a millionaire.” 

The amended filing showed the couple’s total assets at between $18,004 and $95,000, after previously unreported liabilities were factored in. It also showed that Ms. Omar carried between $15,001 and $50,000 in student loan debt. Ms. Omar’s office said she is “not involved in her husband’s businesses” and therefore cannot comment on details regarding them.

EStCru was not a conventional brick-and-mortar winery. The label subcontracted producers rather than operating its own production facility. Its website has been inactive for some time, and the company’s last Instagram post was in January 2023. Mr. Mynett launched the venture in fall 2021 after his prior consulting firm shut down. A spokesperson for eStCru told the New York Post in February that the winery was “no longer operational” and would generate no income for Mr. Mynett going forward.

The company had drawn legal scrutiny before congressional attention arrived. In 2021, Mr. Mynett allegedly promised a Washington-area investor a 200% return on a $300,000 investment in eStCru, but did not repay the funds until the investor sued for fraud in 2023. Court records showed that as of February 2024, eStCru had $650 in its bank account while defending that suit; the case settled in November 2024. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the lawsuit or the congressional inquiry.