SYRACUSE -- A 22-year-old Albany man says he lied to FBI agents when he told them a Cornell University student was planning terrorist attacks on the Ivy League campus.

Manik Gupta says the target of his misinformation was a romantic rival who was dating his estranged girlfriend.

Gupta pleaded guilty Monday to making false statements to a federal law enforcement agency.

He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 26 in U.S. District Court.

Prosecutors say Gupta was a student at Siena College when he sent e-mails to the FBI in February 2008 saying the Cornell student was learning how to make bombs, threatening to kill faculty and had joked about sending anthrax to the White House.