Manafort's Daughter Says She's A Passionate Liberal Now And She Wants A New Last Name

Yohai and his now ex-wife, Jessica Manafort, when they were laundering Russian money through L.A. real estate for her dad

About a year ago Paul Manafort’s daughter, Jessica, came onto my radar as loose end in a bizarre situation that happened to an old friend of mine from the music business. It was quite a few years ago that he had rented his Malibu house to a young married couple. Eventually they stopped paying rent on time and then stopped paying rent altogether... and it got worse from there. One day my friend got an early morning call from the FBI telling him that they were about to raid the house, explaining that he had nothing to fear and that it was just the tenants-- who were involved in a ponzi scheme. The wifey was Paul Manafort's daughter, Jessica, and her hubby was notorious real estate crook Jeffrey Yohai. More recently Yohai swindled Dustin Hoffman and his son, Jacob Hoffman, out of $3 million. And... more recently than that, Yohai has been a cooperating witness against Manafort, who was investing millions of dollars into the ponzi scheme.

Jessica filed for divorce while Yohai and the FBI were... developing their relationship, accusing her father of conspiring to mislead a federal bankruptcy court about real estate investments. Yohai and Jessica moved from small time swindling to major money laundering on behalf of Manafort and-- what else?-- Russian criminals. High end real estate, as you know by now, is how crooks from around the world launder their ill-gotten gains. Yohai had cut a plea deal with the Feds that included cooperation in all criminal probes of Manafort and Russianinterference in the presidential election.

Over the weekend, the NY Post reported that Jessica Manafort, who certainly doesn't want to go by either "Manafort" or "Yohai," has filed paperwork to officially change her last name to her mother’s maiden name, Bond.

She said that she’s seeking the name change "to separate myself and my work from a public perception that has nothing to do with the person that I am."

“I would like my new name to be Jessica Anne Bond, in place of my present name,” she said in the legal filing.

Bond is her mother Kathleen’s maiden name, which the daughter feels "more closely suits [her] profession," she wrote in court papers.

Jessica, an independent filmmaker, seemed to test her hopes-to-be-future name in July, when her latest flick, Rosy, came out.

Its director was listed as Jess Bond.

She told The Post she’s seeking the name change "to separate myself and my work from a public perception that has nothing to do with the person that I am."

When asked about the prospective name change in July, Manafort told the Los Angeles Times, "I am a passionate liberal and a registered Democrat and this has been difficult for me. Although I am 'the daughter of,' I am very much my own person and hopefully people can realize that."