The Chinese network.
24 October 2025 04:18 United States
A Chinese jewelry thief active in many countries was recently sentenced to three to nine years in state prison for continuous theft from many top luxury brand stores in Manhattan and Long Island jewelry stores, involving a total amount of more than 260,000 US dollars.
Yaorong Wan, 50, from the Queen’s District of New York, was sought by Interpol for alleged crimes in South Korea, California and Florida.
曼哈顿地方法院法官柯蒂斯·法伯（Curtis Farber）本周一（10月20日）宣判此案，认定其在2024年三月连续盗取蒂芙尼（Tiffany & Co.）与卡地亚（Cartier）两家奢侈品牌店的钻石首饰，随后又在长岛的London Jewelers偷走名表。
根据检方说明，2024年3月4日，下午2点51分左右，万耀荣进入曼哈顿五大道洛克菲勒中心的蒂芙尼珠宝店（Tiffany & Co.），假装要买珠宝，问售货员拿了多件珠宝，其中包括一枚价值22.5万美元的钻戒。查看了钻戒之后，把钻戒塞入自己的手心，然后用假钻戒与真品对调。之后，他没有购买任何东西就离开了店内，店员把“戒指”放回展示柜，但没有意识到它是假的。
Seven days later, on March 11, Tiffany & Co. conducted a routine inventory of the store's jewelry and found that the genuine diamond ring had been replaced with a counterfeit ring. The genuine Tiffany diamond ring contains a natural diamond set in platinum, while the counterfeit diamond ring is a "cubic zirconia stone" (this material is often used as a substitute for diamonds to make it fake), set in 18K white gold. Furthermore, genuine rings have engravings, logos, and unique SKU numbers, which are absent on fake diamond rings.
At about 1:30 pm on March 12th, Wan Yaorong entered Cartier Jewelry Store in Hudson Square, pretended to buy jewelry, and asked the clerk to take two engagement rings and two watches. When the clerk was not paying attention, he held a diamond ring worth 24,000 yuan in his hand and only returned one of the rings. Wan Yaorong put the successful ring in his pocket and left without paying.
On April 19th, Wang Yong arrived at the London Jewelers on the North Avenue of Long Island Manhattan and once again stole a Chopard watch worth more than $17,000 in the same manner.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement: “William was sentenced for theft of diamonds worth $26,000 gross, which reminds all those who tried to steal from New York’s thriving business circles – the French network has recovered and will never shut down.”
It is that Wang Yong pleaded guilty to second-degree major theft in June 2024 and was formally sentenced this month.At the same time, he was also sentenced on July 11 for third-degree major theft to two years, four months to seven years in prison, and the sentences in both cases will be partially overlap.
Public information shows that as early as 2018, Wang Yong stole more than $33,000 worth of jewelry from a Tiffany store in Seoul, South Korea, and then escaped overseas and was issued a red search warrant by Interpol. Years later, he illegally entered the United States at the end of 2023, and again committed a case at the Cartier store in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, stealing $60,000 worth of jewelry and names.
The prosecutor said that Wang Yong's case was practiced and acted cautiously, specializing in selecting international well-known brands of high-priced jewelry, which can be called "professional-grade jewelry thieves".