A 38-year-old man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge for stealing a rare and historical Chinese manuscript from the UCLA library system, according to court papers.
Jeffrey Ying of Fremont, in Alameda County, entered a plea Monday in Los Angeles federal court to one count of theft of major artwork, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge John Walter set sentencing for Jan. 5.
An affidavit filed in the case states that Ying stole rare books and manuscripts worth nearly $216,000 from UCLA’s library from December 2024 to July 2025. He would rent the documents, bring them home to the Bay Area for days at a time, then return a dummy manuscript instead of the authentic one, prosecutors said.
He typically traveled to China within days of the thefts, according to federal prosecutors.
The Justice Department said library officials noticed that several rare Chinese manuscripts were missing from the UCLA East Asian Library, and an initial investigation revealed the books were last viewed by a visitor who identified himself as “Alan Fujimori.”
Due to the rarity and value of the books, they are not in regular circulation in the library and must be reserved and checked out.
UCLA staff reported receiving information that the name Alan Fujimori is associated with a known book thief responsible for committing similar thefts at UC Berkeley, according to the affidavit.
In pleading guilty, Ying admitted to stealing the historical Chinese manuscript from UCLA on Dec. 20. The volume was thought to have been published in 1685 and is valued at nearly $16,715, court documents show.
During the investigation, prosecutors said, law enforcement searched Ying’s Brentwood hotel room and found blank manuscripts and paperwork in the style and manner of the books Ying had checked out from the university. Investigators also found pre-made labels known as asset tags associated with the same manuscripts that could be used to create “dummy” books to return to the library in place of the originals, the Justice Department said.
Ying requested books from UC San Diego and UC Irvine via a system that UCLA operates to retrieve books from the collections of other UC campuses in Southern California, and those books were transferred to the UCLA library system, court papers said.
Upon Ying’s arrest two months ago, authorities say they found a fraudulent California identification card in the name of Austin Chen along with two library cards in the names of Austin Chen and Jason Wang, thought to be aliases used by the defendant.