A biological-weapons researcher will receive US$5.85 million to drop his civil case against the US Department of Justice, which publicly named him in association with a series of anthrax attacks in 2001.

Steven Hatfill, a former employee of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, was named by then-attorney general John Ashcroft as a “person of interest” after a string of anthrax mailings to media outlets and lawmakers. Hatfill was followed, his phones were tapped and he lost his job at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge (see Nature 419, 104; 2002).

Hatfill said that this had violated his privacy rights. As part of the terms, the government admits no wrongdoing in the case.