The United States Attorney's Office

Los Angeles, CA - An Ontario man has agreed to plead guilty to providing false information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by reporting that he had overheard conversations in which a man threatened to "knock [Los Angeles] off the earth" in a terrorist attack.

In a plea agreement filed today, Dennis Leon Kolupski, 54, admitted that he called the FBI three weeks before the 2005 anniversary of the September 11 attacks and stated that he overheard a disturbing cell phone conversation. According to Kolupski's report, he overheard a co-worker reference the bombings in Madrid and London and state:

- "9/11 is nothing like what will happen on 9/12,"
- "they were going to plant things around the city and that nobody will be able to tell where things are happening,"
- "that we would be so distracted about a lot of little stuff, that we would miss the big stuff, that this will knock L.A. off the earth," and
- "people are already positioning themsleves, which 9/11 is like a candle on a birthday cake."

In a subsequent interview, Kolupski admitted that he did not hear the threats to Los Angeles, that the conversation he overheard was in a language other than English, and that he intended his report to bring scrutiny to the co-worker.

Kolupski is scheduled to make his first court appearance on February 26. Assuming that he enters the guilty plea, Kolupski faces a maximum possible penalty of five years in federal prison.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.