Paul Manafort’s ex-son-in-law is in trouble with the feds again for allegedly importing cocaine and meth into his jail cell while awaiting sentencing on real estate fraud charges, prosecutors said this week.
In a filing no doubt familiar to the extended Manafort clan, federal prosecutors argued that Jeffrey Yohai is in breach of his plea agreement due to his drug use behind bars.
“Defendant’s admitted use of cocaine and methamphetamine at MDC is, of course, a new felony…and a breach of his obligation to ‘[n]ot commit any crime,'” reads the government’s April 2 application that a judge find Yohai in breach of his agreement.
Yohai allegedly admitted to using drugs while incarcerated, but then tried to argue that it “was a justification for releasing him so that he could attend a private residential drug treatment facility,” according to the court documents, first reported by Politico.
The 37-year old scion of the Yohai family was married to one of Manafort’s daughters from 2013 until August 2017. He was indicted last year on a second round of real estate fraud charges while awaiting sentencing on another array of allegations.
According to the second indictment, Yohai boasted to a prospective fraud victim last year that he had “turned state’s evidence” against his former father-in-law.
“Yohai made several statements…that he had to go to ‘D.C.’ to meet with the Special Counsel’s Office or ‘downtown’ to meet with ‘the feds,’” wrote FBI special agent Sherine Ebadi in a November 2018 affidavit in the case.
Yohai’s real estate dealings came up at Manafort’s August 2018 trial in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, where his ex-father-in-law was convicted on tax and bank fraud charges.
Prosecutors wrote in the Tuesday filing that Yohai “uses the limited money he receives from his mother to make payments to purported ‘friends’ in the poorer areas of greater Los Angeles that he does not even communicate with by telephone or email.”
“Because prisoners do not have access to currency, of course, it is common to pay for drugs in prison by sending ‘gifts’ to the dealers’ accomplices and loved ones who are out of prison,” the filing reads.
