As orders from Moscow to grow more and more cotton spiraled in, the Uzbek government had respond by reporting miraculous growth in land irrigated and harvested, and record improvements in production and efficiency.

In 1986, it was announced that almost the entire party and government leadership of the republic had conspired in falsifying cotton production figures.

The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan fully rehabilitated Usmonxoʻjayev on 18 November 2016, after the death of the first president of the country Islam Karimov.

Usmonxoʻjayev held his position throughout the scandal, serving as a puppet of Moscow as the Central Committee tried to strengthen its grip in Uzbekistan.

On 12 January 1988, he was relieved of his duties as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan "in connection with his retirement", and on 24 May 1988, he was removed from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.