Denis Yakovlevich Bass
Official biography
Place of birth
Denys Bass is a native of Kyiv. In 2000, he graduated from the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” with a degree in marketing. PhD in Economics (2006).
Business career
After graduation, he joined Pravex-Bank, the brainchild and main business structure of the then People’s Deputy of Ukraine Leonid Chernovetsky. At the beginning of his career, he worked as a manager of a group of technical secretaries, head of the marketing department, and director of two branches of the bank in Kyiv — Dorohozhytskyi and Pushkinskyi.
In April 2003, Bass was promoted to the position of Vice President of Pravex-Bank. Then — more. In December of the same year, he became senior vice president of the bank, in January 2004 — deputy chairman of the board, and in February 2005 — first deputy chairman (with responsibilities for overseeing the bank’s card business, deposit activities, treasury, car loans, etc.). In 2005-2006. Bass was twice named one of the five best Ukrainian bankers of the year by the annual financial rating of the Business newspaper. Several times, his colleagues from other domestic banks elected him to the Board of Directors of the VISA Ukraine Association.
From bankers to officials. Bass could have felt quite comfortable as a top manager of a large bank even today, if not for Chernovetsky’s victory in the March 2006 mayoral elections in Kyiv. The new mayor brought a cohort of leading Pravex managers to the mayor’s office. One of the top positions in the KCSA went to Bass. He was in charge of the main departments of finance, economy and investments, transport, communications and informatization, media and public relations, municipal property, industrial and innovation policy.
Back in 2007, Bass combined the position of first deputy head of the KCSA with the position of head of the main department of economy and investments, but in mid-May Chernovetsky decided to appoint another person to the post. The mayor did not provide a very clear explanation for this decision, saying only that “combining two positions is a very big responsibility and workload.”
In March 2010, after Viktor Yanukovych came to power, Chernovetsky “optimized the management structure of the KCSA” and as part of the “new approach to staffing implemented by the president and prime minister”, Bass was “demoted” to deputy.
In June 2010. Bass resigned from the KCSA when the new first deputy mayor, Oleksandr Popov, brought Ruslan Kramarenko from the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services to replace him.
Unlike some other high-ranking colleagues in the KCSA and Kyiv City Council, Bass avoided openly scandalous decisions and harsh statements, and tried not to spoil relations with journalists. In terms of his behavior, he is a direct opposite of, say, former Deputy Mayor Irena Kilchytska or the Secretary of the Kyiv City Council Oles Dovhyi, and even more so of his former boss. He is a rare guest on television political talk shows.
In 2012, Denis Bass decided to move to Russia. He lived in Moscow for several years and ran the Russian company Intourist.
In early 2018, it became known that Denys Bass had returned to Kyiv. The former official seriously decided to focus on the development business.
Family.
He is married. His wife is a famous model, Miss Ukraine-1997 titleholder Ksenia Kuzmenko. They have three children, a son and daughter together, and Ksenia’s son from her first marriage to Oleksandr Onyshchenko.
Compromising material
It is known that Denis Bass is associated with one of the richest men in Russia, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a figure in the Kremlin Report, which included oligarchs close to Putin, and who is under sanctions in Ukraine. Apparently, Bass is legalizing Yevtushenkov’s money in Ukraine to circumvent the sanctions.
In March, the owner of the Kyivproekt institute changed, three sources in the Kyiv construction market — a real estate consultant, an investment banker, and a director of a development company — told LIGA.net on condition of anonymity. According to their information, the new owners include former first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration Denys Bass, whose team is currently working on the Kyivproject development program.
According to the SMIDA agency, by the end of 2016, the Kyivproject was owned by three offshore companies — Hightop Limited (24.67%), Jethrix Ltd (24.98%), Arvati Global Ltd (24.98%) and an individual, Oleksandr Popov (19.78%).
In early 2017, they were replaced by Cyprus-based Traylory Ventures, which in 2015 owned a stake in Khreshchatyk Bank in the interests of Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
Traylory Ventures acquired Kyivproekt in 2017, and Bass became a partner in the project, Pohorila said. According to her, in March, Khmelnytsky sold his stake in Traylory and completely withdrew from the Kyivproject.
Kyivproject owns a 16-story building on Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street with a total area of about 25,000 square meters. “This is a Soviet-era building, but due to its good location, offices can be rented for about $10 per square meter per month,” the director of a Kyiv-based appraisal company told reporters.
“The market value of the building is $16-18 million,” estimated Sergiy Kostetsky, a leading real estate specialist at SV Development, a consulting company.
Bass’s management plans to reconstruct the building, said the head of a large development company, who asked not to be named. “It is proposed to open apartments, offices and create a shopping area,” he said.
Denis Bass, Chernovetsky’s associate who came from Moscow, will build a skyscraper near the Ukraine Palace
A skyscraper is to be built near the Palace “Ukraine” at 107-109 Velyka Vasylkivska Street (Pechersk district) in Kyiv. Construction is going to start on a site with heavy traffic, which could lead to a transport collapse of the entire neighborhood.
OBOZREVATEL has learned that on June 13, 2018, the construction permit was issued by the KCSA’s urban planning department. The company that will build the skyscraper, according to the register, belongs to the Valdez Limited offshore company and is associated with the former deputy mayor of Kyiv under Leonid Chernovetsky, a member of the «young team» Denys Bass.
At the same time, according to Nashi Hroshi, the planned height of the building is 100 meters. «If we talk about the Ukrzhytlobud site, according to the General Plan, it is a territory of public buildings and structures where housing construction is prohibited. The planned height of the building is about 100 meters. It is worth noting that the site where the skyscraper is to be located is part of the Central Historic Area of Kyiv, where construction above 27 meters is prohibited,» the article says.
Expulsion of the “bass”
From the very beginning, Denys Yakovlevych was demoted. From being the first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration (Mr. Chernovetsky had four first deputies before March of this year — Denys Bass, Anatoliy Holubchenko, Irena Kilchytska and Yevhen Chervonenko), he became just a deputy. But he did not last long in this position either.
Already in June, the newly appointed first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Oleksandr Popov, said that “he will definitely not stay in office.” “He will definitely be fired in the near future. As for the accusations against him, I think this is not a question for me. This is a question for law enforcement agencies. I have made my decision, and he will be fired tomorrow or the day after,” Mr. Popov said.
As it turned out, the prosecutor’s office took a serious interest in the projects overseen by the former vice mayor, and Denis Yakovlevich’s entire business is based on his own influence. People he personally appointed unconditionally signed all the recommended documents and turned a blind eye to his business. According to Mykhailo Brodsky, the head of the State Committee for Entrepreneurship, 1000 kiosks in Kyiv belong to the company High Tech Bud, which is associated with the father of Deputy Mayor Denys Bass. He is also credited with the Stardogs kiosk chain.
Criminal cases are being prepared against Bass
Deputy Mayor Denis Bass was famous for never putting his signature on a document.
“He literally twisted the arms of his employees, but he never signed anything, he was terribly afraid of it. And if his signature was needed, he would get it through a collective decision,” his subordinates say.
His “right-hand man,” Maryna Pohybko, is already on the international wanted list, and the SBU has opened a case against her.
It was on Pohybko that Bass delegated all his decisions, and as soon as the authorities in the city changed, she immediately went abroad. If she is detained and returned to her homeland, she can give the necessary testimony as to who ordered her to sign this or that document.
Denis Bass himself is now in Ukraine, saying that he is taking care of his young son. At the end of June, he was even seen in Yalta in one of the prestigious clubs. However, as Segodnya has learned, Bass is still in Ukraine only because he was urged not to leave his homeland.
Rating of the most expensive apartments for rent in Kyiv
The fourth place was taken by a 4-room apartment of 250 square meters in an architectural monument on Antonovycha Street, where former Deputy Mayor Denys Bass lives. It can be rented for 64 thousand UAH per month ($8 thousand).
Where did Bass disappear to?
Kyiv is full of contradictory rumors about the arrests of members of Chernovetsky’s “young team.”
For example, the mayor’s office is convinced that the search of Kyiv City Council Secretary Oles Dovhyi was caused by his refusal to write a letter of resignation.
Denis Bass, they say, was less skittish: he agreed to write a letter and wait out the troubled times somewhere far away from Kyiv. Now he is allegedly hiding either in Spain or Italy.
Bass’s spokeswoman said she could neither confirm nor deny this information during the day. The journalists tried to visit Chernovetsky’s ex-deputy at his home in an apartment on Gorky (Antonovycha) Street. But a security guard at the parking lot near the house said that he had not seen the former official for a week. He said he used to come here every day.
Denis Bass became a Russian hotelier
Chernovetsky’s former deputy, Denis Bass, has taken a job as the head of the successor to the all-Union Intourist.
On May 11, the board of directors of the Russian company Intourist decided to terminate the powers of the company’s president, Alexander Arutyunov, early, and appointed Denis Bass to take his place, Vedomosti reports.
According to the publication, Bass also replaced Arutyunov as chairman of the board. Arutyunov was also removed from the company’s board.
“Intourist issued a statement about the change in the company’s management without providing any further comment.
“My resignation was expected, I have fully fulfilled my tasks of making Intourist an industry leader, developing the outbound business and attracting investors,” Arutyunov explained his resignation to Vedomosti.
The search for a new manager for Intourist began in January 2012, after Thomas Cook Group and Intourist finalized the acquisition of a controlling stake in their joint venture by the British holding company, Arutyunov said. The parties announced the creation of the joint venture in November 2010: “Intourist invested in the agency and operator business, while retaining the hotel business. The deal with Intourist was closed last summer, with Thomas Cook paying $45 million (most of it in shares).
Denis Bass himself had been working for Intourist as an advisor to Arutyunov since March 2012. “He (Bass) made a good impression, active, persistent, with the right business ideas,” a source said.
A shopping center on the road: How Chernovetsky’s right-hand man is building a concrete monster right on the roadway
In 2012, Denys Bass, who was Chernovetsky’s first deputy mayor, left for Moscow, but his business in the Ukrainian capital is still thriving. It is the company that is actually owned by the former official’s father that is building the scandalous shopping center on the Borshchahivka light rail line.
Illegal activities in the improvement of the city of Kyiv
December 26, 2009. Illegal activities of the Kyiv city improvement under the leadership of the first deputy mayor Denys Bass and Kyivpastrans.
Summary
Denys Bass, being a part of Chernovetsky’s “young team”, managed to get a lot of perks. For example, the land that Chernovetsky so generously distributed to his “own”, illegal construction, embezzlement of money from the treasury, and much more, which the SBU is silent about. After that, being afraid of punishment, like a true patriot, Denis Yakovlevich fled to Russia.