Russia sentences former ‘king of state contracts’ to 12 years in prison in absentia for bribing a colonel

Moscow's Basmanny District Court has sentenced former businessman Boris Usherovich, a co-owner of the "1520" group of companies, to 12 years in prison in absentia. The court's decision comes after investigators found Usherovich, along with associates Valery Markelov and Dmitry Motorin, bribing a former Interior Ministry colonel, Dmitry Zakharchenko, totaling over 1.4 billion rubles.

The payments were made between 2007 and 2016 to ensure protection for a shadow banking platform Usherovich and his partners had established. Zakharchenko was initially receiving 150,000 euros a month, but the payments ceased in 2009-2011 before rising to 20% of the platform's monthly income in each currency. Usherovich, Markelov, and Motorin had fled Russia prior to the case being opened.

Zakharchenko has denied the allegations. Valery Markelov was previously convicted in 2019 and sentenced to eight years in prison along with a 500 million rubles fine. He passed away several months after the sentence due to cancer. The "1520" group of companies specializes in designing and building railroads. In 2018, its owners topped Forbes Russia's ranking of "kings of government contracts" after securing contracts worth 218 billion rubles that year.