Federal prosecutors in Southern California have charged an East Bay resident with stealing more than $200,000 worth of rare and historical Chinese manuscripts from a university’s library system, authorities said.
Jeffrey Ying, 38, of Fremont, has been charged with theft of major artwork and will make his initial appearance at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles next week, according to a statement the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. He was in state custody after his arrest Monday, authorities said.
The charge is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.
In the statement from the Attorney’s Office, authorities said an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint states that Ying stole the rare and valuable manuscripts from the library from December 2024 to July 2025. Authorities said the value of the manuscripts was $216,000.
According to authorities, Ying rented the manuscripts, brought them home for days at a time, then returned a dummy manuscript instead of the authentic one. Typically, Ying then would travel to and from China within several days of the theft, authorities said.
Eventually, the library noticed that several rare manuscripts were missing. Authorities said the initial investigation revealed the manuscripts had been viewed by a person identifying himself as “Alan Fujimori,” one of three aliases that authorities said Ying used. Authorities said they found the other two on a fraudulent California ID card and on two library cards.
The rarity and value of the manuscripts kept them out of regular circulation at the library forcing them to be reserved and checked out, authorities said. Authorities did not say from which university the manuscripts were stolen.
Authorities said that during the investigation, investigators searched Ying’s Southern California hotel room and found blank manuscripts and paperwork in the style and manner of the books Ying checked out from the university. Authorities said they also found pre-made labels known as asset tags associated with the manuscripts that could be used to create “dummy” books.
Those dummy books were set up to be returned to the library in the original manuscript’s place, authorities said.
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