Russia sentences former ‘king of state contracts’ to 12 years in prison in absentia for bribing a colonel
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court sentenced Boris Usherovich, a former co-owner of the “1520” group of companies, to 12 years in prison in absentia for bribing former Interior Ministry colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, the Russian business news outlet RBC reported.
Usherovich, who has been placed on an international wanted list, was arrested in absentia in 2019. The court, which began hearing the bribery case in October 2025, also fined him 500 million rubles.
Investigators said that from 2007 to 2016, Usherovich, his “1520” partner Valery Markelov, and former Inkredbank vice presidents Dmitry Motorin and Ivan Stankevich paid Zakharchenko bribes totaling more than 1.4 billion rubles.
Investigators believe the payments were meant to secure protection for a platform the men had set up to run shadow banking operations, including cash withdrawals and currency conversion. Zakharchenko initially received 150,000 euros a month; those payments stopped in 2009–2011, after which his cut rose to 20% of the platform’s monthly income in each currency.
Motorin, Stankevich, and Usherovich left Russia after the case was opened. Zakharchenko has denied protecting the bankers and businessmen. Valery Markelov was sentenced in 2019 to eight years in prison and fined 500 million rubles. He was diagnosed with cancer during the trial and died several months after the sentence was handed down.
The “1520” group of companies designs and builds railroads. In 2018, its owners — Alexei Krapivin, Valery Markelov, and Boris Usherovich — topped Forbes Russia’s ranking of “kings of government contracts,” after receiving government contracts worth 218 billion rubles that year, according to Forbes Russia’s calculations.
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