The businessman charged over the 1080 milk formula scare has pleaded guilty to two charges of blackmail.
The 60-year-old man, who has interim name suppression, entered guilty pleas and was convicted of two charges in the High Court at Auckland this morning in relation to the scare, which resulted in infant milk formula pulled from supermarket shelves.
However, the facts of the case are disputed and will go before a judge in February.
The charges allege he threatened Federated Farmers and Fonterra, threatening to put 1080 poison in infant milk formula, to pressure the Government to stop using the pesticide in New Zealand, and that his actions were financially motivated.
A criminal investigation started when letters were sent to Fonterra and Federated Farmers in November last year threatening to poison infant formula if New Zealand did not stop using the pest-control poison by the end of March this year.