The beneficial owner of the TVi channel is Konstantin Kagalovsky, according to lawyers of the Jurimex company, who were hired by the channel.

"The sole owner of the TeleRadioSvit television and radio broadcasting company LLC, which holds the license for broadcasting satellite television programs under the TVi logo, is Media Info LLC, which holds a 100% stake in the company. The majority shareholder of Media Info is a non-resident company Wilcox Ventures Ltd., which owns 99% of Media Info. The sole owner of Wilcox Ventures Ltd. is Konstantin Kagalovsky," the channel's press service reported.

"Thus the principal beneficial owner of the TVi channel is Konstantin Kagalovsky," the lawyers said.

Jurimex told Interfax-Ukraine that they had signed a contract with TeleRadioSvit LCC for the provision of legal services.

The press service of TVi reported on Tuesday that Artem Shevchenko had been appointed the new director general of the channel, replacing Natalia Katerynchuk. The new investor in the channel is prominent U.S. businessman Oleksandr Altman, who said his priority is to save the television channel as an objective source of information in Ukraine.

However, TVi owner Konstantin Kagalovsky said there has been an illegal takeover of the channel, adding that he had not signed any papers to sell the channel and the documents had been forged.

"I haven't sold the channel and I wasn't going to," Kagalovsky said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Katerynchuk, who has been suspended from the post of the TVi director general, submitted a statement to the police regarding the illegal seizure of the channel.

In the meantime, the employees of the channel have gone on strike until the conflict between the owners of the channel is settled.

The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting on April 11, 2013 made amendments to the license of TVi, according to which Kyiv-based Media Info LLC has increased its stake in Kyiv-based TeleRadioSvit television and radio broadcasting company LLC, which broadcasts satellite television programs under the TVi logo, from 43.6% to 100%.

According to the document, talk-show host Oleksiy Lichman was appointed a member of the editorial team, replacing Mykola Kniazhytsky (became an MP in 2012) and Volodymyr Pavliuk (moved to STB in 2011) and Vaclav Havel, who died at the end of 2011.

As of September 2012, the co-owners of TVi along with Media Info were Seradgill Holdings Ltd. (49%) and International Media Company LLC (Kyiv, 7.4%). The national council said that the share of Seradgill Holdings was earlier 92.6%.

The key owner of Media Info as of September 2013 was Wilcox Ventures Ltd.

There has been a long-running conflict over TVi. There have been court actions on the matter in Ukrainian and foreign courts involving businessmen Kagalovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky. The latter tried to regain control over the channel or funds invested.

However, in 2009, Kniazhytsky told Interfax-Ukraine that the channel does not belong either to Kagalovsky or Gusinsky.

"There are relations, but it cannot be said that they are owners of the channel," he said then, not disclosing the names of the end owners.

In 2012, when Media Info LLC appeared among shareholders of the TVi channel, the then director of the channel Kniazhytsky told the Telekritika publication that the introduction of Ukrainian co-owners to the structure of the shareholders is linked to the observation of the requirements of the law on the political advertisements, although the end owner of the channel is still Kagalovsky.