WESTWOOD—On July 8, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced that Jeffrey Ying, 39, of Fremont, near San Francisco Bay, was sentenced to 366 days of home confinement for stealing rare copies of historical Chinese manuscripts from the University of California, Los Angeles library. The value of the manuscripts is $216,000.
Ying was arrested in August 2025. He pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of theft of a major artwork for stealing a manuscript that was made in the 17th century during China’s Qing dynasty.
In December 2024, he borrowed rare manuscripts from the library, and days later returned a copy he made instead of the original. Each time, Ying would also travel to China several days later. During this period, he used the name Austin Chen, Jason Wang and Alan Fujimori.
In 2025, university librarians noticed rare manuscripts were missing. Their search revealed that the texts had been reserved by Alan Fujimori, due to their value, the texts were not included in those placed in regular circulation and were checked out by him.
An investigation by the UCLA Police Department commenced where authorities searched Ying’s hotel room in Brentwood, and discovered asset tags, pre-made labels used by libraries for inventory and checkout. They also found blank manuscripts and paperwork that resembled the books Ying checked out of the library.
After Ying was arrested, he was in possession of an ID bearing the name Austin Chen, along with two library cards, one bearing that name and the other bearing the name Jason Wang. The FBI’s Art Crime Team also conducted an investigation, and no further information has been released to the public.
By Daniel Diquinzio