Prosecutors have asked a Moscow military court to sentence a former senior officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service to 11 years in prison after he and two others were caught with millions of dollars worth of cash in 2019.

They also asked the Moscow Garrison Court on April 16 to fine Kirill Cherkalin 34 million rubles ($445,000), deprive him of his rank as colonel, and bar him from working in law enforcement structures.

Cherkalin was arrested in April 2019, along with two other FSB officers, Dmitry Frolov and Andrei Vasilyev, on charges of bribe-taking and fraud.

The case gained prominence after investigators said they had found 12 billion rubles ($157 million) in cash hidden in the trio’s properties at the time.

In addition, investigators found 3.2 billion rubles cash in the apartment of Cherkalin’s parents.

The case echoed the arrest of a Moscow police officer Dmitry Zakharchenko who was apprehended in September 2016 after investigators found $120 million in various currencies at his Moscow apartment.

Zakharchenko was found guilty of bribe taking and obstruction of justice and sentenced to 13 years in prison in June 2019.

Based on reporting by Interfax, Meduza, and TASS