US Man Sentenced for Stealing Rare UCLA Chinese Manuscripts
Jeffrey Ying pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $216,000 in rare books and manuscripts after using aliases and dummy replacements to hide the thefts.
- On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced Jeffrey Ying to one year and one day in prison for stealing rare Chinese manuscripts from the University of California, Los Angeles .
- Using fake identities like 'Alan Fujimori,' Ying checked out 17th-century manuscripts from December 2024 through July 2025, replacing originals with 'dummy' books to avoid detection.
- Authorities discovered pre-made labels and blank manuscripts in a Brentwood hotel room during an August 2025 arrest, evidence of a scheme to steal nearly $216,000 in cultural property.
- The Fremont man pleaded guilty to one count of theft of major artwork using aliases 'Jason Wang' and 'Austin Chen' discovered during his arrest.
- Ying frequently traveled to China shortly after each theft, while authorities investigate similar manuscript thefts at UC Berkeley attributed to someone using the same name.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Saudi Gazette
AlKhaleej TodayCalifornia man in elaborate plot for stealing rare Chinese manuscrpts from UCLA library sentenced
A man who admitted to stealing rare historical Chinese manuscripts from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) library and replacing them with fake documents was sentenced by the US Department of Justice on Wednesday.
US man Jeffrey Ying jailed for stealing rare Chinese manuscript from UCLA
A California man who swapped a library’s 17th century Chinese manuscript for a fake was jailed for a year on Wednesday after admitting to stealing a major artwork. Jeffrey Ying used a number of aliases to gain access to classic works, some over 600 years old, at the library of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the US Department of Justice said. Ying, 39, would check the works out and return days later with dummy manuscripts. He w…
Radio France Internationale
US man jailed after swapping 17th century manuscript
Jeffrey Ying used a number of aliases to get access to classic works, some over 600 years old, at the library of the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) the Department of Justice said. Ying, 39, would check the works out and return days later with dummy manuscripts. He would frequently travel to China shortly thereafter, officials said. UCLA’s library system flagged that several rare Chinese manuscripts were missing, and an investigati…
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