MOSCOW, July 13 - RAPSI. The Moscow City Court has sentenced defense attorney Vera Lychkina to five years in jail for fraudulently claiming $350,000 from a client, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency.

Investigators found that Lychkina heard of the prosecution of an individual who was being kept in custody on charges of fraud and contacted his representative. She promised to secure a noncustodial sentence for the defendant in exchange for $750,000 in compensation.

In fact, Lychkina misled the defendant, as she had no possibility of influencing either the investigation process or the final conclusions.

Investigators maintain that she received $385,000 in several installments in the period of August to September 2011. She paid a minor portion of this to the victim of the fraud and appropriated the rest.

The court has declared her guilty of a large-scale fraud.