LOS ANGELES
A San Fernando Valley man was arrested Thursday on a federal criminal complaint alleging he sent a series of threatening emails to the FBI, officials stated.
This included threatening to bomb the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and referencing the notorious “Unabomber.”
Mark William Anten, 52, of Sun Valley, is charged with making threats by interstate communication, a felony offense.
If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison. Anten is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
FBI agents arrested Anten without incident on Thursday at his residence.
A federal magistrate judge ordered Anten jailed without bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned Jan.11.
According to a criminal affidavit, since July 2023, Anten has sent numerous threatening communications to the FBI, including emails that reference bombing the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office in Westwood.
Specifically, on November 2, 2023, Anten allegedly emailed FBI agents saying he “embrace[d]” that he was voted most likely in his graduating class to become the next Unabomber—a reference to Theodore John Kaczynski.
Kaczynski’s 20-year bombing campaign killed three people and injured nearly two dozen more. Kaczynski was convicted of federal crimes. He spent the bulk of his prison sentence in the “SuperMax” federal prison in Colorado and died in prison on June 10.
In the November 2 email, Anten allegedly listed similarities between himself and Kaczynski, proclaimed that he was working on a manifesto, and signed his email “Unabomber.”
On November 20, two FBI Task Force officers interviewed Anten in front of his residence.
During the interview, Anten admitted to sending the previous communications, and the officers admonished him to stop contacting agents, the affidavit states. Despite the admonition, Anten’s conduct escalated.
On December 5, Anten allegedly sent a string of threatening emails to FBI agents, in which he threatened to “unabomb” the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
In one email sent on December 6, Anten allegedly emailed agents, “I can go on a mass murder spree., it would be very explainable by your actions,” and signed it, “SuperMax or Death.”
He also sent an email that included an image depicting the results of a Google internet search for “how to make a dirty bomb.”
Later, on December 6, Anten visited the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and later emailed agents that he visited their building and would continue to do so. Surveillance footage confirmed Anten’s presence there.
The FBI investigated this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney J’me K. Forrest of the General Crimes Section prosecutes this case.