Ex-deputy of the former mayor of Kyiv Leonid Chernovetsky Denis Bass is engaged in luxury construction in Moscow. In addition, Bass’s Russian citizenship did not prevent him from becoming the owner of Kievproekt and the April shopping center. So, analysts investigated where these companies get the funds to purchase developments in Ukraine and why Bass was so actively involved in development in the capital in 2018.
Denis Bass, ex-mayor of Kyiv Leonid Chernovetsky, is engaged in the construction of the elite housing complex “Sorge 9” in Moscow. A video about this construction is posted on the YouTube channel, where you can see how the General Director of “ST MICHAEL” Denis Bass checks the progress of work on “Sorge 9”.
At the same time, the ex-official remains the owner of buildings in Kyiv, and one of his capital assets, Kievproekt, is even undergoing large-scale reconstruction. And he acquired their ownership already during the ATO in Ukraine and having a Russian passport. And open sources also report Bass’s connection with entrepreneurs Shomonko and Tymoshenko, who are close to Dmitry Isaenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power and vice-president of the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine. This is a lobbying structure uniting large developers. Therefore, while there is a war in the state, a Russian developer can safely promote his business in the capital of Ukraine. However, StopCor journalists will tell you more about Bas’s communications business in the next publication.
Bass's professional ups and downs
Denis Bass immediately after receiving his university education got a job at JSCB Pravex-Bank, which was the main business structure of Leonid Chernovetsky, at that time still a people’s deputy of Ukraine. Bass began his career in the bank as a manager of a group of technical secretaries, then became the head of the marketing department, and even later headed two metropolitan branches of the bank - Dorogozhitskoye and Pushkinskoye.
Then his career grew rapidly: vice-president of JSCB Pravex-Bank, senior vice-president of the bank and deputy chairman of the board of the same bank.
Already in 2005-2006, Bass was included in the top five best Ukrainian bankers according to the results of the annual financial rating conducted by the Business newspaper. Several times his colleagues from other domestic banks elected him as a member of the Board of Directors of the VISA Ukraine association.
When Leonid Chernovetsky was elected mayor of Kyiv in 2006, he brought with him a whole team from Pravex Bank and Bass received one of the highest positions in the Kyiv City State Administration. He headed the main departments, such as finance, economics and investment, transport, communications and information, interaction with the media and the public, communal property, industrial and innovation policy.
And a year later, in 2007, Bass held the position of first deputy chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration and acted as head of the main department of economics and investment. However, in mid-May, Chernovetsky appointed another person to this position, without explaining the details of this decision. Then the mayor only noted that “combining two positions is a very big responsibility and burden.”
When Viktor Yanukovych came to power in March 2010, Chernovetsky reorganized the management structure of the Kyiv City State Administration. At the same time, Bass was transferred to the position of deputy, and in June 2010 he resigned from his position at the Kyiv City State Administration.
In 2012, Denis Bass decided to move to Moscow and headed the Russian company Intourist.
Return to Kyiv
The Russian newspaper Vedomosti at the time wrote about Bass’s connections with Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who is under sanctions in Ukraine. Open sources write that Bass is trying to legalize Yevtushenkov’s money in Ukraine, avoiding sanctions. Therefore, he returned to Kyiv in 2018 and became a developer. And here it should be recalled that since 2014, an anti-terrorist operation was carried out in Ukraine. So, it was then, according to information provided by LIGA.net, that a group of investors led by Denis Bass became the owners of the Kievproekt Institute, which owns an office building in the center of Kyiv. Or rather, in 2017, Traylory Ventures acquired Kievproekt and Bass became a partner in this project. The Kievproekt building is located on Bogdan Khmelnytsky Street, has 16 floors and a total area of about 25,000 square meters.
“This is a Soviet-style building, but thanks to its favorable location, offices can be rented out for about $10 per sq. m. m per month,” said the director of the Kyiv appraisal company.
Ex-official Bass did not buy Kievproekt directly, but probably used workarounds, because at that time he was already a citizen of Russia. So, according to information from the SMIDA agency, until the end of 2016, “Kievproekt” was owned by three offshore companies Hightop Limited, Jetriks Ltd, Arvati Global Ltd and the individual Alexander Popov in the same ratio as shown below
Already in 2017, Traylory Ventures, which previously owned a stake in Khreshchatyk Bank in favor of Vasily Khmelnitsky, became the owner of the company. And it was then that Bass became a partner in this project, said Khmelnitsky’s press secretary Alexandra Pogorela. She also noted that in March of the same year, Khmelnitsky sold his stake in Traylory and left the ownership of Kievproekt.
However, Bass did not limit himself to the acquisition of Kievproekt. Open sources reported that he also invested in the construction of the April shopping center on Borshchagovka. And so, supposedly, the official took up the construction work. But Bass returned to Russia again. By the way, he has a Russian passport, which he received during his first trip to Moscow.
What’s wrong with the construction on the site of “Kievproekt”
On September 19, 2019, the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate of Ukraine issued Kievproekt a permit to carry out construction work at the facility “Reconstruction of the property complex - the Kievproekt building with the aim of turning it into a multifunctional complex.”
The raw data for this permit is not yet publicly available due to martial law, which has resulted in all relevant “building registers” being unavailable for public review. However, the characteristics of this multifunctional complex were recorded in an expert report regarding the review of design documentation for the reconstruction of this complex.
This report notes that the area of the Kievproekt building after reconstruction will increase from 30.3 thousand square meters to 79.7 thousand square meters, and the number of floors will increase from 16 to 24 (the construction of 8-story sections is also expected). At the same time, the area of landscaping and landscaping is planned to be reduced from 3.6 thousand square meters to 580 square meters. According to the report, within the framework of this multifunctional complex it was planned to develop 272 one-room apartments with a total area of 23.3 thousand square meters, as well as construct a parking lot for 210 cars.
In February 2020, the public organization “People Against Corruption” decided to challenge the legality of the planned development. They filed a lawsuit with the District Administrative Court of Kyiv in order to declare it illegal and cancel the permit to carry out construction work at the address. Bohdan Khmelnitsky, 16-22. The public organization explained its claims, noting that the use of the corresponding land plot for the construction of a multifunctional complex, as well as its inclusion in its housing function, does not meet the purpose of this land.
In addition, the plaintiffs noted that the developers, among other things, did not take into account the restrictions on the number of floors of the future BFC and the construction features due to its location on the territory of the Central Historical Area of Kyiv. What is set out in the court decision of May 25, 2020 in case No. 640/3954/20.
However, the court did not support the position of the public organization “People Against Corruption” and rejected the claim.
Then law enforcement agencies became interested in the Kievproekt case and opened criminal proceedings No. 12021105100003650 on the facts of possible violations of the law during construction on the street. Bohdan Khmelnitsky, 16-22.
During the investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation previously established that, despite the specified purpose of the site at 16-22 Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street, construction of a multi-storey residential complex “KYIVPROEKT City Space”, more than 100 meters high (more than 24 floors) from 272 apartments. According to law enforcement agencies, these works were not coordinated with the Ministry of Culture, although the site is located within the Central Historical Area, which is a development regulation zone of the first category. In addition, as established by the DBR, the implementation of these works may entail damage to the architectural and urban planning monument of local significance “Profitable House, 1883-1884” (Bogdana Khmelnitsky Street, 12-14), which is adjacent to the mentioned site.
On December 20, 2021, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, at the request of the State Bureau of Investigation, decided to seize a land plot located on Bohdan Khmelnitsky Street, 16-22, as well as a group of premises in the Kievproekt building with an area of 26.7 thousand square meters meters. This decision was justified by “the need to ensure the safety of property as material evidence in criminal proceedings.”
But a few months later, on February 16, 2022, the Kiev Court of Appeal, following a complaint from the director of PJSC Kievproekt, canceled this arrest.
Consequently, observing all these events around the development, I would like law enforcement agencies to also dig deeper into information about the owners of Kievproekt. And doesn’t it turn out that during a full-scale invasion, the Russian elite is calmly carrying out construction in Ukraine.
The public organization “Stop Corruption” believes: “that cooperation with a person working in Russia is high treason, and even more so when this person voluntarily received a Russian passport.”
StopCor analysts sent relevant requests to Kievproekt with a request to comment on this situation and to the DBR on issues of appealing the appeal decision. We are waiting for your response and will keep you updated on developments
