The Justice Department is seeking to reach a plea deal in its criminal investigation of the former son-in-law of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s one-time campaign chairman, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation into Jeffrey Yohai—who hasn’t been charged with any crime—by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles is separate from the Washington-based probe of his former father-in-law and others by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is examining Russian influence on last year’s presidential election, some of the people familiar with the situation said.

Mr. Manafort was accused by Mr. Mueller in an indictment unsealed Oct. 30 with using a network of shell companies in the U.S. and abroad to avoid taxes and launder money, and with lying to investigators and defrauding banks on real-estate transactions. He pleaded not guilty.

Although those charges didn’t appear to directly relate to Mr. Mueller’s investigation of whether Mr. Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election, they could be an effort to gain Mr. Manafort’s cooperation, legal experts said.

Last week, federal investigators working on a possible plea deal reached out to Mr. Yohai’s attorney and to a Los Angeles-based lender, Genesis Capital LLC, which lent money to entities Mr. Yohai had created for failed house-flipping projects in which Mr. Manafort had also invested, according to some of the people. The investigation has also scrutinized at least one real-estate deal involving Mr. Yohai in New York, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

WSJ's Gerald F. Seib explains what have we learned after Special Counsel Robert Mueller unveiled his first two big actions in his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Photo: Getty

It isn’t clear to what charges investigators want Mr. Yohai to plead guilty. Nor could it be determined whether Mr. Yohai would be charged with any wrongdoing if no deal were reached.


Aaron May, a lawyer for Mr. Yohai, said in a statement: “Mr. Yohai has not been charged with any crime nor has he entered into any plea agreements.”

Mr. Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, said in a statement: “Paul Manafort entered a plea of not guilty in response to the indictment and he looks forward to having these allegations tried before a judge and jury.”

Messrs. Manafort and Yohai worked together on real-estate deals related to multiple properties, both in Los Angeles and New York, court and real-estate records show, including some alleged to have involved loan fraud, according to Mr. Mueller’s indictment.

Mr. Yohai is referred to in Mr. Manafort’s indictment as Mr. Manafort’s son-in-law, but not by name.


Mr. Manafort’s daughter, Jessica, filed for divorce from Mr. Yohai earlier this year. Records show a divorce judgment was issued in August.

Mr. Manafort, his wife and daughter put at least $4.2 million into house-flipping projects, federal bankruptcy-court records show. Mr. Yohai put the four properties into corporate bankruptcy in December 2016, as the lender, Genesis, was moving toward foreclosure, records show.

In September, Mr. Yohai said in a federal court filing in Santa Ana, Calif. that Mr. Manafort and associates had “conspired to mislead” the judge about purchase offers that had materialized for the properties. Mr. Manafort hasn’t responded to that allegation in court filings. A spokesman for Mr. Manafort declined to comment on those allegations.

Earlier this summer, a bankruptcy judge in Santa Ana, Calif. cleared the way for a corporate entity partially owned by Mr. Manafort to buy two of the bankrupt properties, but Mr. Yohai later said in court papers that it appeared the purchaser was having trouble finding a loan. The sales failed to close by an Oct. 20 deadline, court records said.


Genesis was also the lender in early 2016 on a Brooklyn townhouse cited by Mr. Mueller in the indictment accusing Mr. Manafort of loan fraud. Mr. Manafort purchased the property through a corporation for nearly $3 million in 2012 using money from another entity in Cyprus, then took out loans from Genesis in early 2016, in part for construction at the property, according to real-estate records and the indictment.

Genesis got loan guarantees for the Brooklyn property from Mr. Manafort, his wife Kathleen, Mr. Yohai and Jessica Manafort, court records show.

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According to the indictment, Mr. Manafort told his tax preparer that the construction loan would allow him to fully pay off the mortgage on another apartment.

After Genesis went to court to foreclose on the Brooklyn property, Mr. Manafort obtained loans from another bank based in Chicago, run by a Trump campaign adviser, and then settled the foreclosure proceedings, the Journal previously has reported.


Mr. Yohai was referred to in Mr. Mueller’s indictment in connection with a Manhattan condominium Mr. Manafort purchased in 2012 through a corporation for $2.85 million, which the government alleged used funds wired from entities he controlled in Cyprus.

Mr. Mueller accused Mr. Manafort of subsequently defrauding a bank when applying for a mortgage on the property. Although the property was used to generate rental income, Mr. Manafort told the bank that it was a second home for his daughter and Mr. Yohai, so he could get a greater loan amount, for $3.185 million, than he could have otherwise, the indictment says.

The indictment says that on Jan. 26, 2016, Mr. Manafort wrote to his then son-in-law about a visit from an appraiser to the condominium, saying, “[r]emember, he believes that you and” Jessica Manafort “are living there.”

Write to Michael Rothfeld at michael.rothfeld@wsj.com and Katy Stech Ferek at katherine.stech@wsj.com