Even in jail, the rich get what they want...

Manafort ex-son-in-law used meth, cocaine in jail

By JOSH GERSTEIN

Paul Manafort's ex-son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai admitted to using methamphetamine and cocaine while being held in a federally-run jail in Los Angeles on a series of a fraud charges earlier this year, according to federal prosecutors.

Yohai pleaded guilty to one set of scams in federal court early last year, but allegedly committed more while out on bail and was arrested on state charges, then hit with another round of federal ones.

A source familiar with the case told POLITICO Yohai made entreaties to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office, but little or nothing came of the effort.

However, court records show Yohai's case is being investigated by one of the key FBI agents involved in Manafort's prosecution, Sherine Ebadi.

Prosecutors seeking to have Yohai declared in violation of the plea deal he cut last year detailed his alleged drug use in a motion filed Tuesday with a federal judge.

Prosecutors suggested that while held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in L.A, Yohai managed to obtain drugs by sending small amounts of money to individuals in the area.

"Defendant’s financial records at MDC show that he 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," prosecutors wrote. "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."

In January, jail officials observed Yohai acting strangely and he was ordered to provide a urine sample, which turned up positive for cocaine and meth.

Yohai later claimed he never initialed the seal on the sample, but a jail official dismissed that assertion.

Yohai eventually admitted to the drug use and his public defender argued unsuccessfully last month that it was a reason he should be freed on bond.
Defense attorneys for Yohai did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment for this story.

Prosecutors also filed a sealed submission with the court Tuesday detailing other ways in which Yohai allegedly breached his plea deal.

Having a judge declare Yohai in breach of the agreement would free the prosecution to seek a more severe sentence and to use statements Yohai made that would otherwise be off-limits.

A criminal complaint secretly approved by a federal magistrate judge last year accused Yohai of a veritable potpourri of fraudulent schemes totaling more than $21 million, including loan fraud, check kiting, cashing bad checks, forgery, selling fake tickets to the music festival Coachella and pawning $20,000 worth of stolen electric guitars and musical equipment.

Yohai was married to Manafort’s daughter Jessica in 2013. She filed for divorce in 2017.

Yohai was mentioned several times at Paul Manafort’s trial on tax and bank fraud charges in a Virginia federal court last summer. Yohai wasn’t charged in that case and was never called as a witness, but Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors accused Manafort of providing fraudulent information in an effort to secure a loan from the Banc of California on properties he invested in with Yohai.

That particular bank fraud charge was one of eight felonies a jury convicted Manafort on in August. Jurors split, 11 to 1, on the other charges, which were dismissed last month as part of a plea deal.

In an affidavit filed last year, Ebadi suggested Yohai tried to further his frauds by invoking his ties to the Manafort case and the broader Mueller probe.

Ebadi said Yohai told men trying to sell a Los Angeles home that he’d be traveling to Washington soon to aid Mueller’s inquiry.

“During lunch, YOHAI told [the men] that he ‘turned state’s evidence’ on his father-in-law, Paul Manafort,” Edadi wrote. “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 f.’”

“I know these statements to be false as I was the case agent for the Special Counsel’s case against Manafort. The last time YOHAI met with me was in April 2018 and the topic of conversation was YOHAI, not Manafort,” Ebadi added.

It’s unclear why Yohai’s claims of involvement in the Mueller probe would make him a more attractive participant in a business deal.

POLITICO reported last year that Yohai pleaded guilty in a federal fraud case stemming from his earlier efforts to obtain financing for high-end properties in the Los Angeles area that he intended to “flip” and re-sell.

Ebadi says Yohai pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of bank wire fraud in federal court in Los Angeles in February 2018 That hearing was held behind closed doors.