Bay Area Man Who Stole Rare Chinese Manuscripts From UCLA Library Gets Federal Prison: DOJ

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Bay Area man was sentenced to just over a year in federal prison for stealing a "rare and historical" Chinese manuscript from a Los Angeles university during the span of several months, prosecutors said.

Fremont resident Jeffrey Ying, 39, who went by the aliases. "Jason Wang," "Alan Fujimori" and "Austin Chen" pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of theft of major artwork, according to the Department of Justice.

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Ying began renting out the 17th-century Chinese manuscripts from the UCLA library starting in December 2024 despite not being a student, authorities said.

On several occasions, he used several fake IDs and replaced the original manuscripts with "dummy" ones, federal prosecutors said.

Ying then took the originals back to his Fremont home and traveled to China within a few days after each theft, prosecutors said. It's unclear what happened to the manuscripts or why Ying took them.

UCLA eventually noticed that the rare manuscripts were missing and traced it back to the last person who had checked them out: "Alan Fujimori."

At the time, police were investigating similar thefts at UC Berkeley committed by someone with the same name, according to authorities.

Law enforcement identified Ying as a suspect and searched his Brentwood hotel room, where they found blank manuscripts, paperwork and pre-made labels that could be used to create "dummy" books to return to the library, prosecutors said.

Between December 2024 and July 2025, Ying stole nearly $216,000 worth of books and manuscripts from UCLA's library, according to authorities.

Ying was taken into custody in August 2025. During this arrest, authorities found other fake IDs with the names "Jason Wang" and "Austin Chen."

The 39-year-old was facing up to 10 years in federal prison before pleading guilty to the crime. On Wednesday, prosecutors announced Ying received one year and one day in federal prison.