Jeffrey Yohai

A property on Blue Jay Way is now at the center of legal proceedings involving actor Dustin Hoffman and Jeffrey Yohai, a real estate developer who is the son-in-law of Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “The Graduate” actor and his son Jacob Hoffman invested $3 million with Yohai, who planned to raze a modest home on the street and build a $30-million mansion in its place, according to real estate records and Bankruptcy Court documents. The deal has foundered as companies owning four of Yohai’s L.A.-area residential properties each went into foreclosure and then bankruptcy last year, including the Blue Jay Way parcel in the Bird Streets neighborhood. He’s also fighting a lawsuit in New York from an investor who alleges that he operated a Ponzi scheme. Yohai, 35, said in a filing that the allegations are fabrications. The struggles of Yohai’s L.A. ventures and the presence of notable investors who put money into his properties offer a window into the city’s high-stakes residential development scene. In recent years, a flood of money has poured into building estates in locales such as Malibu, Brentwood and the Hollywood Hills. The identities of the backers of these projects are increasingly being obscured via opaque ownership structures, which typically rely on limited liability companies to hold assets. Such was the case with the Hoffmans’ business with Yohai: their investment came through an LLC called DJ Blue Jay Way. The Hoffmans weren’t the only high-profile investors in Yohai’s business. Manafort, his wife Kathleen and daughter Jessica — who is married to Yohai — invested $4.7 million in the developer’s L.A.-area projects, according to bankruptcy filings. The biggest of those investments was a $2.7-million loan made by Manafort last year to the now-bankrupt company that owns a property on Stradella Road in Bel-Air, documents show. Manafort has had another real estate headache in recent months: Reports surfaced this week that he staved off the foreclosure of his Brooklyn, N.Y., townhouse after receiving $16 million in loans from a bank headed by a former Trump advisor. Companies controlling Yohai’s four L.A.-area properties — the ones on Blue Jay Way and Stradella Road and two others in Los Feliz — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2016. The properties each entered foreclosure proceedings last year after Yohai defaulted on loans attached to them, real estate records show. They had been scheduled to be sold in trustee’s sales late last year, but that was delayed by the bankruptcies. It is not clear how the Hoffmans came to know Yohai. A photograph from January 2015 shows Yohai and Jacob Hoffman, 36, at a live-music venue in Brooklyn. The younger Hoffman is also an actor whose credits include “I Heart Huckabees” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Yohai’s real estate investments have extended well beyond the Hollywood Hills. But, as in California, at least one of his ventures in New York has soured. Guy Aroch, a Manhattan-based fashion photographer, has claimed in a lawsuit that he invested $2.9 million in two of Yohai’s residential real estate projects, including a condominium, but never got his money back. Instead, according to the lawsuit, Yohai allegedly “used most or all” of Aroch’s investment for “personal travel; lavish purchases; and/or speculative ventures outside the investment mandates.” The lawsuit alleges that Yohai defaulted in October on a promissory note. Yohai’s filing also said that a reference in the lawsuit to him being a relative of Manafort is irrelevant and meant to embarrass the former Trump aide and attract publicity. In 2011, Jeff began his professional career in real estate as a licensed agent with Oxford Properties in New York City. Jeff rose quickly through the ranks to become one of New York’s top performing agents. In 2013, he facilitated a record-breaking $325 million in real estate transactions. In the same year, Jeff chose to pursue his passion for creative expression and transitioned from real estate brokerage to development with the successful completion of several Manhattan condominium projects. Jeff continues to be active in the New York market and is currently completing a mixed-use residential/retail project in Tribeca. A native of New York, Jeff holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from New York University. He is married to Jessica Yohai, a feature film writer and director. Jeff and his family divide their time between residences in the New York City and Los Angeles.