Man charged for borrowing rare Chinese manuscripts from UCLA library, returning fakes
Suspect Jeffrey Ying allegedly travelled to China after checking works out using several aliases
A California library user who allegedly took home rare Chinese manuscripts and returned fake ones in their place has been charged with US$216,000 worth of theft, US officials said on Thursday.
Jeffrey Ying used a number of aliases to get access to classic works, some over 600 years old, at the library at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Department of Justice said.
Ying, 38, would check the works out and return days later with dummy manuscripts. He would frequently travel to China shortly thereafter, charging documents say.
“The library noticed that several rare Chinese manuscripts were missing, and an initial investigation revealed the books were last viewed by a visitor who identified himself as ‘Alan Fujimori’,” the DoJ said.
When detectives raided the Los Angeles area hotel where Ying was staying, they found blank manuscripts in the style of the books that had been checked out.
“Law enforcement 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 original books.”