On Feb 5, the Washington Post reported that three Russian oligarchs are renewing a defamation suit against Christopher Steele, the author of the Steele dossier. They claim to have new evidence that shows that the British ex-spy displayed “recklessness” in accusing them.

The story began in April 2018, when Mikhail Fridman (worth $15 bln) and his business-partners Petr Aven ($5 bln) and German Khan ($9.8 bln) filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Steele in D.C. Superior Court, and claimed that Mr. Steele falsely accused them of corruption over their close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Steele also accused them of being involved in the Russian government’s illegal interference in the 2016 election through computer hacking and social media warfare.

Their case was tossed just four months later. They now appeal to the court trying to prove “actual malice” on Mr Steel’s side. The three oligarchs are also suing Fusion in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia for defamation, because Fusion co-founder Glenn Simpson pushed the claim that Alfa maintained a dedicated computer server with the Trump Organization.

Mikhail Fridman has several more lawsuits on his hands currently. In Moscow, a dispute is ongoing between himself and Elena Baturina, the richest woman of Russia ($1.2 bln), former President of a large construction and development company Inteco.

Fridman’s A1 holding has made it clear that they intend to use the story of 19 years back to try and get 13.8 billion rubles (around £173 mln) from Baturina by manipulations with the debts of her bankrupt brother Victor.

Another story of Mikhail Fridman’s court adventures is unfolding in Spain. Last Autumn, Spanish prosecutors accused him of raider attacks, market manipulation, fraudulent insolvency, business corruption and misuse of company assets in regard to two Spanish businesses – Zed and Dia.

As told by AFP, Fridman is accused of having led “a series of actions that led to the insolvency of the Spanish company Zed Worldwide SA… in order to buy it at a ridiculously low price, much lower than that of the market,” the court document said. According to the National Court, the Russian magnate was a shareholder and creditor for Zed, a Spanish technology company declared bankrupt in November 2016. As a result, he had “a privileged position for any type of decision in the group,” it said.

The very same manoeuvers have been spotted by the press in the case of Dia, the embattled Spanish supermarket chain Mikhail Fridman bought in May via a hostile takeover.  The Reuters write that Spain’s High Court is investigating allegations that Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman acted to depress the share price of Dia when trying to take control of the supermarket chain, a court document seen by Reuters showed.

Spain’s Supreme Court gave the High Court a mandate to investigate anonymous accusations which it said indicated Fridman may have acted to manipulate prices, engaged in insider trading and damaged the interests of minority shareholders.

In October, Fridman appeared in court in Madrid as part of the Zed case, and denied all charges. The Court however, ruled to maintain the ‘accused’ status in his regard.