in may 2017 khan, along with fellow alfa bank owners mikhail fridman and petr aven, filed a defamation lawsuit against "buzzfeed" for publishing the unverified donald trump–russia dossier, which alleges financial ties and collusion between putin, trump, and the three bank owners. in october 2017 khan, fridman, and aven also filed a libel suit against the private-investigation firm fusion gps and its founder glenn simpson, who had commissioned former mi6 agent christopher steele to compile the dossier, for circulating the dossier among journalists and allowing it to be published. in april 2018 khan, fridman, and aven filed a libel suit against steele in the superior court of the district of columbia, but the suit was dismissed with prejudice the following august.