General Discussion

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband accused of swindling investor in their California winery

In the fall 2021, D.C.-area restaurant owner Naeem Mohd was presented with an unbelievable investment opportunity.

Two political operatives turned venture capitalists would triple Mohd’s money in just 18 months if he invested $300,000 in their new California winery.

The pair had been paid in grapes by a former client and had hired a well-respected Sonoma winemaker to turn those grapes into profit. They promised if they didn’t pay Mohd the full $900,000 on time, they would tack on 10% monthly interest on any outstanding balance, according to the contract shared with the Minnesota Reformer.

The offer might have seemed suspicious if not for the person making it: Tim Mynett, a well-connected political consultant and husband to U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom he married in 2020.

Mynett came recommended by Mohd’s attorney, Faisal Gill, a former Democratic operative himself who knew Mynett from his days working on Keith Ellison’s congressional campaigns. Mynett and Gill had been friends since. Omar endorsed Gill in his unsuccessful bid for L.A. County Attorney, and Gill donated $1,000 to Omar’s campaign in 2021.

“I trusted Tim,” Gill said in an interview. “If it was not for Tim, the deal would have never happened.”

Mohd wired the $300,000 to Mynett and his long-time business partner Will Hailer, with whom he founded a political consultancy called E Street Group in 2018.

But 18 months came and went without Mohd receiving the 200% return he was promised from the winery, eStCru.

Mynett and Hailer only returned Mohd’s $300,000 — about a month late — according to a lawsuit Gill filed on behalf of Mohd in California last fall seeking at least $780,000.

The complaint, which has not been previously reported, claims the pair “fraudulently misrepresented … that estCru, LLC was a legitimate company.”

Hailer and Mynett deny they defrauded Mohd. Rather, they say they simply struggled to build a successful business in a challenging industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A short-lived winery isn’t the only source of financial trouble and litigation for companies connected to Hailer and Mynett.

In April 2023, soon after Stancliff said she stopped getting paid and Mohd was due a big payday that never came, three of Hailer and Mynett’s other companies agreed to pay $1.7 million to three South Dakota marijuana entrepreneurs to settle a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of contract.

The companies — eSt Ventures, Badlands Fund GP and Badlands Ventures — only paid $500,000. That led to a confession of judgment last fall, not previously reported, which was signed by Hailer, with the companies admitting they still owe $1.2 million.

The marijuana entrepreneurs and their investors are now suing Hailer and the companies in Nebraska, where Hailer lives, for the remainder.

Mynett was mentioned in the lawsuit but not named as a defendant. He wrote in an email that he withdrew from eSt Ventures in early 2022, “because I wasn’t active in any of the work (securing investment, placing investment or even structure).” The company is now listed as “inactive” because it’s delinquent on its business filing fee in Nebraska.

Consistent with Mynett’s response, the companies don’t appear on Omar’s 2023 disclosure.

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