KAZAN, March 29 - RAPSI. The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Dmitry Troitsky, the lawyer of a defendant in the Bulgaria riverboat crash case, the committee reports on Thursday. Troitsky is suspected of attempted large-scale fraud.

"Investigators suspect that in March 2012 the lawyer approached the brother of his client who was charged with a murder. Troitsky asked the man for 6 million rubles, proposing to pay the sum to Interior Ministry officers in exchange for their help to close the criminal case against his brother," the source said.

The man then called the Federal Security Service, which later detained Troitsky when he received the money.

Troitsky is the defense attorney of former Federal Service for the Oversight of Transport Chief Inspector Vladislav Semyonov, who is the defendant in the notorious Bulgaria riverboat case. The boat sank on July 10, killing 122.

Investigators maintain that Semyonov was responsible for pre-licensing inspections, and approved the readiness of the Bulgaria's operating company to transport passengers.

The Bulgaria, a double-decked riverboat, was built in Czechoslovakia in 1955. The cruise ship with 201 passengers and crew aboard was sailing from the town of Bolgar to Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. The ship was caught in a storm and sank on July 10 in the Kuybyshev Reservoir of the Volga River three kilometers from the riverbank. A total of 122 people died. Only 79 survived.