An East Bay man was sentenced to a year in prison for stealing rare Chinese manuscripts from the University of California, Los Angeles, library, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge John Walter on Wednesday sentenced Jeffrey Ying, a 39-year-old Fremont resident, after he pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of major art theft, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Ying reserved and checked out the manuscripts, which were not in regular circulation due to their value, and brought them home for days before returning “dummy” manuscripts to the library, prosecutors said.
Ying traveled to and from China within several days of the thefts, according to prosecutors.
The thefts happened from December 2024 to July 2025, according to prosecutors. Ying was arrested last August and pleaded guilty in October to one felony charge related to stealing a manuscript from the library dating back to China’s 17th century Qing dynasty.
When librarians noticed several rare Chinese manuscripts were missing, the FBI and UCLA police began investigating. They learned the books had been checked out under one of several false names used by Ying.
Police searched a hotel room where Ying was staying in Brentwood and found blank manuscripts and pre-made labels used to create dummy books, prosecutors said. They also found Ying with fraudulent California ID cards and library cards with false names.
Prosecutors said restitution in the case will be determined later.
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This article originally published at East Bay man sentenced for stealing rare Chinese manuscripts from UCLA library.
