Representative Ilhan Omar and her third husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, are facing a growing storm of questions over a mysterious $5 million winery and a sudden explosion in their reported wealth that critics say bears little resemblance to the typical American dream story they like to invoke.
According to Gateway Pundit, the controversy intensified after a segment on FOX Business Network in which host Elizabeth MacDonald and Forbes Media Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes dissected Omars rapidly expanding fortune and the opaque finances surrounding Mynetts investment firm, Rose Lake.
MacDonald opened by noting that Omar has tried to cast herself as a victim of political persecution, claiming the Justice Department and Congress probing her sudden skyrocketing wealth to $30 million in just one year, that they have a problem with her living the American dream, even as she was heard sneering at the goddamn United States of America. She then added, Weve got new questions on where she and her husband got all that money, framing the issue as one of basic transparency and accountability.
The FOX Business host pointed to new reporting that the state of Delaware and Washington, DC, canceled the registrations for Omars husbands investment firm, Rose Lake, for not paying its back taxes. MacDonald said, We saw it owed more than $400,000 to Delaware and nearly $1,800 to DC, yet Omar is claiming its worth $25 million from less than a grand a year before, and the firm is supposedly worth an estimated 75 million to 150 million, prompting her blunt question: How can his investment firm not afford to pay taxes?
Forbes did not mince words in response, rejecting the idea that this is merely odd bookkeeping. Well, weird is not the word for it, he said. Theres another word for it called crooked, and thats why we have to have an investigation into this. He reminded viewers that the Biden administration started to examine her finances and that of her husband, but, surprise, surprise, that investigation went nowhere, a result that will only reinforce conservative concerns about selective enforcement and political protection for favored Democrats.
Forbes underscored how implausible Omars financial trajectory appears when measured against ordinary Americans who work and save for decades. Its amazing how people can go into Congress and then become these entrepreneurial investing geniuses, he observed, noting that she had under $1,000 of net worth, and her husband didnt have much, and suddenly now theyre multimillionaires. He went further, asking, Is there a money laundering operation here? and pointing to the firms themselves as having a sketchy background.
Central to that sketchy background is the supposed California winery that Omar and Mynett claim to own, which Omar reportedly valued at $5 million. Forbes pressed the obvious questions: That winery in California that she and her husband own. Where did that come from? Wheres the wine there? And nobody can seem to find it, suggesting that the asset may be little more than a paper construct used to justify unexplained wealth.
MacDonald reinforced that point, stating flatly, Theres no evidence, public evidence, theres even a winery. She valued it at five million. Turning back to Rose Lake, she added, His investment firm is real. Well, its supposedly real. Its DC headquarters appear to share office space at a WeWork, Steve, and she noted theres no track record of his firm managing money, doing M&A deals, no clients we see, investment deals or any work thats been done.
The host further highlighted that Rose Lake claims to operate on a global scale while leaving virtually no regulatory footprint. They say they do work in 80 nations theyre operating in, MacDonald said, yet theres no SEC registrations from them as investment advisors, leading her to conclude, What is going on here? This increasingly looks sketchy, both the winery and his investment firm.
Forbes, echoing the skepticism of many on the right who see Omar as emblematic of Washingtons culture of self-enrichment, drew a sharp contrast between her rhetoric and her reality. He said the situation is not the word for it being merely strange, insisting instead that her version of the American dream is the Al Capone version of the American dream, Tony Soprano version of the American Dream, and that is steal it, steal it from the taxpayers.
He stressed that the leap from minus $1,000 to $30, $40 million is a glaring red flag, saying, you know something is not right, and he predicted that the truth, if fully investigated, will be damning.
Suddenly, all that 30 million, I think youre going to find, Ill make a speculation or prediction, that 30 million came from sources that are illegal, period, Forbes declared, underscoring why conservatives are demanding a serious, independent probe into Omars finances, the phantom winery, and the shadowy operations of Rose Lake.
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