Anatoly Smolkin biography: 13 things about UC Berkeley alum born in Kyiv, Ukraine

Anatoly Smolkin is a former attorney based in California, United States. He has no permanent address on file.

Smolkin attended the Town School for Boys and Lowell High School, which are both in San Francisco, California. After earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from The University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, he went to Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, USA where he earned his law degree.

In February 2017, Smolkin sent a two-page letter to Andrew Horvath, a Solano County District Attorney’s Office deputy district attorney who had prosecuted him for parole violations. Smolkin wrote in part, “I warn you, if charges are not dropped, all perjured restraining orders lifted, my parole cancelled, I will charge, but effectively sentence, the entire Solano County DA’s office with kidnapping punishable by death by Russian military firing squad.”

“Let me be crystal clear – I have no training in riflery or authorization to carry out an execution: what I am saying is that if I have to report to parole on 7 MAR 2017, before 31 DEC 2017 your entire office will be arrested by Russian military police, tried in a rubber stamp trial for kidnapping, and sentenced to death by firing squad,” Smolkin continued. Because of the letter, he was charged by the Solano County District Attorney with threatening a state official and resisting an executive officer.

In August 2018, a jury acquitted Smolkin of threatening a state official but convicted him of resisting an executive officer. In its opinion on May 20, 2020, the California Court of Appeals determined that his letter was not a true threat.

Who is Anatoly Smolkin?

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Smolkin is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. On December 10, 2010, he was admitted to the State Bar of California as a licensed attorney.
2. In July 2011, he started working at TinyCo on Bush Street in San Francisco.
3. On October 26, 2011, he found a parking ticket on his Nissan 370Z outside his TinyCo office. Soon after, TinyCo fired him. Because of this, he started stalking the company’s employees.
4. On December 1, 2011, he tricked a former coworker into letting him inside the offices of Evolv On Demand, where he previously worked for nine months, on Second Street in San Francisco. He rushed to his former boss and threw a parking stub at him. When he was arrested on December 2, 2011, he threatened to kill a police officer. Afterwards, he started stalking several former employers, attorneys representing his victims and their families and the Town School for Boys.
5. On January 12, 2012, he was arrested and charged with 32 counts, including stalking, making criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest and battery.
6. On July 3, 2012, the State Bar of California suspended him for failing to pay fees.
7. On April 3, 2013, he was convicted on 47 of 53 stalking-related counts.
8. On July 26, 2017, the State Bar of California disbarred him.
9. On September 1, 2020, he wrote on Facebook, “I became a naturalized citizen well before the age of the majority anywhere when my parents became citizens… and I have never taken a formal oath of allegiance, joined the military, or worked in a capacity requiring citizenship anywhere. Which means what, admiralty lawyers?”
10. On August 7, 2021, he walked into Congregation Netivot Shalom, a synagogue on University Avenue in Berkeley, interrupted Shabbat services and shouted that Jews were going to burn in hell and were going to pay for what they did to him, according to police. After being refused entry, he yelled outside Chabad House, a Jewish community center on University Avenue, where he was later arrested by Berkeley Police Department officers.
11. On April 7, 2022, San Francisco Police Department officers arrested him.
12. On August 1, 2023, he turned 39. On August 7, 2023, he was convicted of making criminal threats.
13. On April 23, 2024, in a Facebook post, he wrote in part, “Yesterday, for corporate reasons, I had Arash – Iran Iran, playing in a loop all day.”