Questions surrounding Ilhan Omar’s wealth have resurfaced after reports revealed the Biden Justice Department quietly investigated the Minnesota representative’s finances in 2024, the same year her net worth surged from almost nothing to more than $30 million. The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors examined Omar’s finances and her “interactions with a foreign citizen,” though the inquiry later stalled.
According to the report, the investigation began in June 2024 under the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. While the identity of the foreign citizen remains unknown, the inquiry surfaced months after the Washington Free Beacon disclosed that Omar’s wealth jumped from no more than $51,000 at the end of 2023 to upward of $30 million a year later. The spike largely stemmed from her husband Tim Mynett’s stake in Rose Lake Capital, a private equity firm with global investment ties.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer has since said his office is considering subpoenaing Mynett. President Donald Trump also weighed in, writing that the Justice Department is “looking at” Omar, “who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars.”
Omar’s business and political activities increasingly overlap. After Rose Lake Capital launched in 2022, Omar formed the U.S.-Africa Policy Working Group, leading lawmakers “committed to building partnership with the continent of Africa.” She later appeared alongside Rose Lake executives at investment forums and called on Congress to approve a “$44 billion lifeline for African communities.”
Questions have followed Rose Lake as well. Former senator Max Baucus, whose name appeared on the firm’s website, said of the operation, “You can read between the lines—it sounded a little bit fishy.”
Omar has dismissed the controversy outright. “Years of ‘investigations’ have found nothing,” she said, calling criticism a political distraction. Still, the unexplained rise in Omar’s wealth continues to attract attention from watchdogs and lawmakers alike.
