MOSCOW, August 12 (RAPSI) – A court in Russia’s city of Sverdlovsk has sentenced an attorney, who had attempted to fraudulently receive 5 million rubles (over $75,000) from relatives of his client for the termination of a nonexistent criminal case, the Investigative Committee’s press service reports.

Investigators and the court found that in October 2017 the lawyer attempted to steal the money from relatives of a person arrested for alleged involvement in drug trafficking. However, he initially discovered that the amount of seized drugs is inadequate for criminal prosecution. The attorney did not inform the relatives of the arrested individual about this fact but suggested that they paid him 5 million rubles for bribing police officers with a proposal not to open a case.

The victims gave him a part of the requested sum and then turned to the regional officers of the Federal Security Service. The lawyer was arrested when receiving the second part of the sum, the statement reads.