Guilty plea in Dow Jones white powder mail case

A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to mailing a suspicious white powder to Dow Jones & Co.

The U.S. Attorney's office says 70-year-old Richard Valentine Kozak of Long Lake pleaded guilty Friday to one count of false information and hoaxes.

In a plea agreement, Kozak admitted putting white powder inside a prepaid, business-return envelope - along with an obscene note - and mailing it to a Dow Jones mail facility in Massachusetts last May.

Kozak was responding to unsolicited mail from the company. The powder - which turned out to be flour - spilled on an employee. A hazmat team spent more than four hours determining the powder was not anthrax or other biological threat.

Kozak faces up to five years in prison. He'll be sentenced later.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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