Violent threats against LA FBI agents land Sun Valley man in prison for 15 months

A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Friday, Nov. 22 for threatening an FBI field office in Los Angeles.

Mark William Anten, 53, of Sun Valley, was convicted after a three-day trial in June of two federal counts of threats by interstate communication. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu.

From July to December 2023, Anten sent threatening messages to the FBI, including threats to bomb the FBI’s office in Westwood, according to authorities.

In the emails, Anten repeatedly referenced Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. For nearly 20 years, beginning in the late 1970s, Kaczynski terrorized the nation with his bombing campaigns, which killed three people and injured nearly two dozen more.  Kaczynski spent most of his prison sentence in the Supermax federal prison in Colorado. He died in a different federal prison last year.

Anten admitted to sending the threatening messages to the FBI on November 20, 2023 when two federal agents interviewed him in front of his home. They told him to stop emailing agents. Even after that, Anten’s threats continued, prosecutors said.

Two weeks later, on December 5,  Anten sent an email to FBI agents saying, “I can go on a mass murder spree. In fact it would be very explainable by your actions.” He ended the email saying, “[y]ou ain’t getting away with this one,” and signed it, “SuperMax or Death.”

In another email Anten sent to the FBI, he included a photograph showing the internet search results for “how to make a dirty bomb,” according to a news release.

Later that day, Anten visited an FBI field office in Los Angeles, and after that sent an email to agents saying he paid them a visit and would continue to do so. Surveillance footage confirmed Anten’s presence there, authorities said.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Clifford D. Mpare and Kedar S. Bhatia prosecuted the case.