Oregon Senator who pushed to tax the rich watched his son build a $467 million hedge fund

Like many politicians in Washington, D.C., Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has become exceedingly wealthy while serving as a public official.When he entered politics in 1980, he was teaching the science of aging at multiple Oregon universities and chaired the Oregon chapter of senior advocacy nonprofit, the Gray Panthers. He also served as the director of the Oregon Legal Services Center for the Elderly, a nonprofit, and sat on the Oregon State Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators, which he left the year before the 1980 election.
Forty-six years later, the powerful Democrat’s net worth is estimated to be between $9 million and $35 million, depending on the tracking source and disclosure calculations, making him one of the wealthiest senators in the U.S.
Mixed info about the origins of Adam Wyden’s hedge fund
While Wyden’s net worth grew in the House and then the Senate, where he currently serves as the ranking member on the powerful Finance Committee, his son, Adam is, according to whalewisdom.com, a registered investment adviser based in Miami Beach, Florida, and has grown his own hedge fund, ADW Capital Partners, into a $467 million portfolio, with his share worth up to $100 million. Back when Adam started his hedge fund, his father was the senior member of the Finance Committee, as well as the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Budget, and the Joint Committee on Taxation, among others.
There is no direct evidence that Ron used his political connections to help his son start his hedge fund. According to Bloomberg News, the fund was started in the former family home in D.C., which by that time belonged to his mother and not Ron. Reportedly, the sitting senator did not invest in the fund when it was founded.
Adam did not respond to a Just the News inquiry prior to press time.
Adam Wyden’s politics and connections to Jeffery Epstein
Adam has also clashed with his father publicly on tax policy and is not registered with either political party. While Ron regularly pushes to tax the rich, Forbes reported in 2021 that the younger Wyden called former President Biden’s attempts to effectively double the capital-gains tax rate “anti-American.”
“I’m very disappointed with American governance right now. Do you think any of these guys actually know what they’re doing?” Adam added.
Adam met with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2016 seeking a backer for his private investment fund, according to emails released in March relating to Epstein. Fox News reported at the time that the discovery of Adam’s meeting came following months of criticism from Ron Wyden over President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of Epstein records. Wyden also implied that his “follow the money” trail “ties back to Donald Trump.”
Yet an email chain from April 2016 – nearly eight years after Epstein was first designated a sex offender and his crimes exposed to the public – shows Adam Wyden sought an investment during a meeting at Epstein’s home in Manhattan. 
“Jeffrey, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope my passion and dedication for my business came through in the meeting. I live and breathe this business and take my returns, integrity, and reputation quite seriously. And, I believe I have the mental fortitude and energy to stick through the tough times and drive value when others are fatigued,” Adam said in an email to Epstein. “I intensely appreciate like minded [sic] individuals and would very much look forward to having you join us at the fund.”
Adam is described in Epstein’s scheduling document as “Jonathon Farkas’ friend,” an apparent reference to the husband of Trump’s then-ambassador to Malta and brother of Andrew Farkas, a good friend of Epstein who also did business with him.
At the time the emails were revealed, Ron Wyden told Fox News Digital that he wasn’t involved in his son’s business.
“I don’t speak to my kids about their business activities, and I read about this a few months ago on social media just like everybody else,” Wyden told the outlet. “My investigation began four years ago and continues unchanged. I want transparency and accountability across the board.”
Wyden told The New York Post when the emails were released that he had “no comment – I’m not interested” and hung up the phone. As the Post reported, there is no evidence Adam knew about Epstein’s crimes or whether Epstein became a client.
A sweetheart deal with a strip club enterprise and an indictment
Associating with Epstein wasn’t the only questionable matter connected to Adam’s hedge fund. 
News aggregator Benzinga reported last December that RCI Hospitality Holdings Inc’s CEO and CFO, Eric Langan and Bradley Chhay, stepped down after being hit with significant legal and regulatory turbulence mere days after the company disclosed a massive $30 million stock buyback to acquire 821,000 shares owned by Adam Wyden’s ADW Capital Partners, L.P. 
At the time, ADW was a major shareholder in the company and the hedge fund owned 10% of common stock for RCI Hospitality Holdings, a shady strip-club conglomerate accused of bribing New York officials and tax evasion. The executives of RCI were indicted, and the top executives stepped down only one week after buying out Adam Wyden’s hedge fund’s shares of the company.
Adam was bought out at 50% above that day’s closing price, just days before company executives were ousted due to indictments. In her press release touting the indictments, N.Y. Attorney General Letita James did not disclose that Wyden’s son was a shareholder or that Wyden’s buyback income was enormously inflated when compared to the closing share price.
James alleged that RCI’s executives bribed a former State Department of Taxation and Finance auditor and supervisor in exchange for favorable treatment during six audits. The alleged bribe included trips to Florida with $5,000 a day for private dances at RCI-owned strip clubs. James alleged that the bribery was openly discussed in emails and text messages. Langan was one of the executives indicted.
The executives were accused of avoiding payment of more than $8 million in sales taxes between 2010 and 2024 in a 79-count indictment.
For its part, RCI issued a statement filed with the SEC denying wrongdoing, and said “RCI, the individuals involved, and the three clubs deny the allegations and will take all necessary action to defend themselves against these overreaching charges, while continuing to seek a just resolution […] We remind everybody that these indictments contain only allegations, which we believe are baseless. RCI and the individuals involved are presumed innocent and should be allowed to have their day in court,” the company said.” The defendants pleaded not guilty, and the case is ongoing.
Stock trades: It’s all in the family
While Ron Wyden regularly calls for a congressional stock trading ban, his family has provably benefited from stock trading, perhaps to the tune of millions of dollars.
Between 2019 and 2021, while Wyden served as the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as ranking member of the Water and Power Subcommittee, his wife bought and sold shares of energy companies, including ExxonMobil and Shell, The New York Times found. That article highlighted questionable stock trades of several lawmakers’ families, from both sides of the aisle.
Wyden’s wife also made trades in companies run by executives who testified before the committees on which Wyden served. A spokesman for Wyden told the Times that he and his wife maintain separate finances and that the senator has no input or role in his wife’s investment decisions.
Just the News previously reported that an investment decision by Wyden’s wife resulted in him most likely violating the STOCK Act by failing to disclose a trade worth more than $1,000 within 45 days. A Wyden spokesman blamed the senator’s wife, telling The Washington Sun that the exchange was “automatic and done without direction by the senator’s wife” and that Wyden only learned about it when he was preparing his annual personal financial disclosure.

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