Fury over Ilhan Omar's million-dollar 'accounting error' as her lavish spending on security and travel is exposed... and her husband shuts down winery

By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER and NATASHA ANDERSON, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Published: 14:09, 25 April 2026 | Updated: 14:13, 25 April 2026 Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's big spending behind the scenes is under scrutiny after a wild million-dollar 'mistake' on her financial disclosure form.  Now, there is increased scrutiny on her expenses. As a member of the progressive 'Squad,' Omar, from Minnesota, has been a vocal advocate of defunding the police. Despite that, she's spent $168,575 campaign dollars on security services since 2017, per Federal Election Commission Records. Notably, in her first campaign from 2017 to 2018, that number was zero. The first expenses came during the 2019-2020 campaign cycle.  That security spending number is potentially double the amount of total assets revealed to be shared by Omar and her current husband whom she married in 2020, Tim Mynett, in their amended financial disclosure. After a flurry of scrutiny, Omar and Mynett revealed that they share a total amount of assets between $18,004 to $95,000.  That is a stark difference from the range of assets estimated between $6 million and $30 million that the duo filed in a previous financial disclosure. Congressional financial disclosures do not contain exact amounts, only ranges. Omar was scrutinized by the non-partisan Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC) for the initial error-filled filing. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar speaks onstage as Hundreds of Thousands Protest as part of the No Kings Rallies on March 28, 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, left, and Tim Mynett arrive to attend a state dinner in honor of Kenya's president William Ruto hosted by US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, May 23, 2024 A DC lawyer representing Omar sent a letter to the OCC stating that the erroneous filing was not done on purpose. '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,' the letter said, per the Wall Street Journal.  'While the error is of course unfortunate, there is nothing untoward and nothing illegal has occurred.' 'The amended disclosure confirms what we've said all along: The congresswoman is not a millionaire,' said Jacklyn Rogers , an Omar spokeswoman, said earlier this month. 'The congresswoman amended her disclosures voluntarily as soon as the discrepancy was identified.'  The discrepancy reportedly came from an accountant working with Mynett's businesses, California-based winery eStCru Wines and his venture-capital management firm Rose Lake Capital. Omar claims that she simply trusted the number that was given to her, and didn't question it. But California business records now show that eStCru Wines ceased operations on April 4, two months after the congressional probe into the couple's finances began. Mynett launched eStCru Wines and Rose Lake Capital in 2021. Ilhan Omar has hired her own security detail despite wanting to defund the police Tim Mynett's company eStCru Wines ceased operations on April 4, according to California business records reviewed by the Daily Mail  Mynett's eStCru Wines was named a 'hot brand of the year' in 2022. But by 2023 the firm had been plagued with scandal, with winemakers and former employees alleging they were not getting paid The wine brand was named a 'hot brand of the year' in 2022. But by 2023 the firm had been plagued with scandal, with winemakers and former employees alleging they were not getting paid, the Minnesota Reformer reported. Mynett and his long-time business partner Will Hailer were accused of fraud in 2024 and hit with multiple lawsuits from their investors. Shoppers also began to question the legitimacy of the firm with many claiming in online reviews that they could not find a single distributor that carried eStCru Wines. The brand not operate a physical winery but instead subcontracted winemakers across throughout the West Coast to bottle its wines. Although the eStCru Wines social media pages remain active, the domain for the firm's online store is no longer active. The firm appears to have been defunct for several months now, with a spokesperson having told the New York Post in February that the 'winery is dead.' Travel expenses are also a frequent charge to Omar's campaign accounts, which have racked up 1,758 total charges in the 2,872 days since she first announced her candidacy on June 5th, 2018, for an average of about one charge every one and a half days. Those charges also include reimbursements to campaign staff and consultants, including Omar's now-husband Mynett. Ilhan Omar and husband Tim Mynett attend 'Power To The Patients' live performance in 2023 Omar shouts during US President Donald Trump's State of the Union address in the chambers of the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC on February 24, 2026 Tim Mynett and Ilhan Omar in a June 27, 2023 post Mynett made on X Although Mynett was Omar's consultant before they got married in 2020, the two travel reimbursements made directly to him came in June of 2021, for $417, and in August of 2022, for $117. The total sum of travel expenses for Omar's campaign since the 2017-2018 cycle was $710,919.74, or about $248 dollars per day, since she announced her candidacy. The largest amount was a $12,295 dollar payment to Travel Ease Inc, a New York-based travel agent, made in November 2022.  Hotel charges are split between a variety of chains and brands, and Airbnbs were also used numerous times by the campaign for lodging expenses. Delta Airlines purchases are also frequently appearing for amounts around $500, which is about the cost of a last-minute flight from Washington, DC to Minneapolis. Those charges aren't much of a surprise given that MSP airport in Omar's home state is Delta's second-largest US hub behind Atlanta. Republicans set their sights on scrutinizing Omar earlier this year after according to Omar's earlier filed federal financial disclosures, Mynett's business Rose Lake Capital LLC, went from being valued between $51,000 to $250,000 in 2023 to $5 million to $25 million in 2024.  In a February post on X, Republican House Oversight Chairman James Comer shared that he was appalled by the seemingly sudden increase. 'I'm demanding financial information from companies linked to Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar's husband [Mynett],' Comer posted on social media in the first week of February. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, on  Monday, February 9th, 2026 'His companies reportedly went from $51,000 to $30 MILLION in one year - with zero investor information. So we want to know: Who's funding this? And who's buying access?' Omar, a member of the Somali community in Minnesota has fallen under further increased scrutiny this year after a highly publicized crackdown on fraud in her home state. Federal prosecutors have noted at least 57 people connected with the Feeding Our Future program billed the federal government $250 million, claiming to buy meals for children during the COVID pandemic. Instead, the defendants allegedly used the stolen money to buy Lamborghinis, Porsche SUVs, beachfront property in Kenya and private villas in the Maldives. The vast majority of those convicted in the case are Somali. Investigators then found that around $9 billion in federal Medicaid funds supporting 14 Minnesota programs since 2018 may have been stolen, US Attorney Joe Thompson announced on December 18. Eighty-two of the 92 defendants in the child nutrition, housing services and autism program scams are Somali, prosecutors say. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. 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