Harvey said Leeds is owned by a holding company called FSF, based in the West Indies island of Nevis and owned by three discretionary trusts.
The trustees have appointed two men, Patrick Murrin and Peter Boatman, to run the club and they had asked Bates to be chairman.
Harvey told the committee: "I don't know who the beneficiaries of this discretionary trust are, no."
Asked if Bates knew, he replied: "Not to my knowledge." He added: "There is no individual [owner], that's the nature of discretionary trusts - it's a perfectly legal and much-used ownership structure in many different industries, not just football."
Harvey defended the structure and said the club had recovered from the financial problems inherited from the Peter Ridsdale era.
He added: "The football club has no debt. There's no indication that there's any desire [from the discretionary trusts] to move away from the investment. I am convinced now that the light at the end of the Elland Road tunnel is the way out rather than the train coming in the opposite direction."
Source: PA