A U.S. government scientist who contributed to the investigation of a series of fatal anthrax attacks in 2001 has died from an apparent suicide, just as he was about to be charged by the Justice Department with conducting the attacks, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper informed that Bruce Ivins, a 62-year-old scientist who had worked for the past 18 years at government biodefense research laboratories in Maryland, was found dead after an overdose of painkillers soon after he was notified of his impending prosecution. However, the U.S. Justice Department has not made any comment regarding the newspaper report.

Five people died after anthrax was mailed to media organizations and politicians in the U.S. not long after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Mr. Ivins had helped the FBI examine the anthrax-contaminated envelopes as a microbiologist for a government laboratory.

Security measures which were taken following the 2001 anthrax attacks crippled the national mail service and provisionally shut down a Senate building. In addition to the five deaths, more than 20 other people were sickened.

One of Bruce Ivins’ two brothers, Thomas, told the Los Angeles Times he was not at all shocked by the suicide. “He buckled under the pressure from the federal government,” Thomas Ivins said, as quoted by the newspaper, adding that FBI agents came to Ohio last year in order to interrogate him about his brother. “He had in his mind that he was omnipotent.”