Trump Praised 25 Gas Stations as One “Freedom Fuel” Brand. The Records Show They Don’t Share an Owner.

CBS News Detroit reported (Sep 2) that Freedom Fuel Network has expanded outside the Philadelphia–New Jersey corridor for the first time, opening a station at Harper Avenue and Cadieux Road on Detroit's east side ^[40]. The station is pricing gas at $3.47 a gallon — the same "47th president" price point used at the original Pennsylvania locations — undercutting the Metro Detroit average of roughly $4.09–4.12 a gallon ^[40].

The Detroit opening drew an on-the-record accusation of fuel dilution from a rival station operator: Belal Salah, who manages a nearby competing station, told the outlet the pricing gap is suspicious, saying "If it costs me $3.75 and they're selling at $3.47 ... that's possibly water" ^[40]. The report ties the new location to the same parent company, KRSM, that faces Mansfield Oil's federal unpaid-fuel lawsuit in Pennsylvania, noting KRSM continues to deny those allegations ^[40].

Newsweek reported (Sep 1) that Freedom Fuel's advertised $3.47-a-gallon launch price has kept climbing: GasBuddy data cited by the outlet shows Pennsylvania Freedom Fuel stations selling regular gas at $3.99 a gallon — above the state's cheapest price of $3.64, though still under the $4.25 statewide average confirmed by AAA ^[39].

In New Jersey, Freedom Fuel stations were pricing gas at $3.89 a gallon, versus a $3.59 statewide low and a $4.16 average, per the same GasBuddy figures ^[39].

The upshot: Freedom Fuel's original below-cost pitch has effectively evaporated — the chain now prices close to, rather than dramatically under, its competitors, even as the Mansfield Oil unpaid-fuel lawsuit against KRSM plays out ^[39].

Fox Business reported (Aug 31) that KRSM Inc. president Syed Kazmi has now put a defense on the record in the Mansfield Oil lawsuit: in an Aug. 25 court declaration, Kazmi said he did not agree that the amounts Mansfield demanded were correct or owing ^[38], with KRSM's filings framing the fight as a pricing dispute over invoices it says it objected to before Mansfield sued ^[38].

The same report shows Judge Gerald Austin McHugh's Aug. 28 order was more mixed than earlier coverage captured: he vacated the temporary restraining order that had frozen KRSM's M&T Bank account outright, while still granting Mansfield's preliminary-injunction request in part by ordering defendants to keep at least $2.75 million in that account during litigation ^[38]. Mansfield's bank separately told the company that KRSM had refused attempted payment drafts on the roughly $4 million, nearly 1.1 million gallons of gasoline, at the center of the dispute ^[38].

Fox Business also reported that Freedom Fuel Network's 25 participating stations saw average volume increases exceeding 50% after the July price cuts, with several locations topping 100% — company-reported figures the outlet notes are not independently verified ^[38].

NBC10 Philadelphia reported (Aug 29) that a federal judge has granted Mansfield Oil a preliminary injunction ordering KRSM Inc. — the Kazmi-controlled company Mansfield sued Aug. 19 over roughly $4 million in unpaid fuel — to keep at least $2.75 million in a bank account while the case proceeds ^[37]. This is the first court action in the case since the suit was filed, and the outlet also reported the lawsuit pegs Mansfield's claimed damages at a more precise $3,998,868.46 ^[37]. KRSM's attorney had not responded to NBC10's request for comment as of publication ^[37].

Politico reported (Aug 28) that Georgia-based fuel supplier Mansfield Oil Co. filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging that KRSM Inc. — a company controlled by Syed Kazmi, one of the New Jersey businessmen already identified in the network's ownership picture — took more than 1 million gallons of fuel worth roughly $4 million from a Sunoco terminal in Twin Oaks, Pa. without paying for it, then resold some of that fuel to at least 10 Freedom Fuel Network stations ^[36]. The suit ties Freedom Fuel's below-cost pricing directly to allegedly unpaid, stolen fuel: the complaint states "KRSM was able to sell such fuel for such low prices and garner such publicity because it never paid Plaintiffs for such fuel" ^[36].

Mansfield's attorney, Urs Broderick Furrer, said "KRSM has failed to pay for fuel that they lifted off of Mansfield's account. That is not an accounting dispute" ^[36]. KRSM disputed the claim, calling it "an accounting dispute over fuel invoices misplaced by Mansfield Oil" and said it would not comment further on pending litigation; the White House said it "had zero contact or dealings with the defendant" ^[36].

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported (Aug 27) that the Bustleton Avenue station in Philadelphia — one of the Kazmi-linked Freedom Fuel locations that had been at risk of a forced shutdown after failing a license renewal inspection in late July — has resolved the issue and remains open ^[35]. A city spokesperson told the paper the owners "remedied the issue and can continue to operate the station," closing the open question left by the Aug. 8 report that the station faced a Sept. 4 closure deadline ^[35].

The same Inquirer piece recaps, without adding new figures, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's roughly $430,000 in May penalties against 17 stations tied to Shamikh and Syed Kazmi — six of them now Freedom Fuel locations — first reported by Politico on Aug. 7 ^[35].

The Washington Spectator reported (Aug 10) — reporting later amplified by The Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch newsletter (Aug 18) — that Freedom Fuel's pricing mystery may connect to a second, largely unaccounted-for Trump administration oil story: Venezuela ^[33][34]. Freedom Fuel Network LLC incorporated June 23 and had 25 stations running within days, a timeline reporter Jonathan Winer said is hard to explain through normal supply channels ^[33]. Co-founder Yoni Gontownik was listed as recently as March in campaign-finance filings as an executive with Mercuria, a Texas commodities trader that announced a Venezuela oil agreement on May 1 billed as a "White House-supported initiative" — though Mercuria told The Washington Post it has no involvement with Freedom Fuel ^[33].

The reporting also details the administration's broader Venezuela oil arrangement: since January the U.S. has held Venezuelan oil revenue under a "custodianship" with minimal public disclosure; the Financial Times has estimated $13 billion in Venezuelan oil sales, and KPMG received an $84.4 million contract to audit the funds — audit work that has not been shared with Congress or the public ^[33]. Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House's National Energy Dominance Council, both promoted Freedom Fuel's opening in July and led the U.S. delegation that secured the May Venezuela commodities deals in Caracas ^[33]. Bunch's column stresses these links remain circumstantial, not proof the gas itself is Venezuelan-sourced, but frames it as the open question Freedom Fuel's continued silence on its supply chain still leaves unanswered ^[34].

Politico reported (Aug 7) that Shamikh Kazmi — the New Jersey businessman who manages at least six Freedom Fuel stations — racked up 196 separate state violations since 2022 at the stations he manages ^[31]. The outlet obtained an 88-page New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection administrative order via a public-records request showing the agency levied a $429,900 penalty in May against 17 stations managed by Kazmi and owned by Blue Owl Capital, with roughly half of that penalty applying to stations now branded Freedom Fuel ^[31][32].

The most serious infraction was a "major" violation at an Atlantic County station now part of the network: after regulators sealed the site's fuel-delivery ports in 2023 over an unregistered, unrepaired storage tank, the station cut the seal and kept filling the tank with gas anyway, drawing a $50,000 fine ^[31][32]. Politico also reported that New Jersey's Attorney General's Office has taken an interest in the stations' below-cost pricing, since selling gasoline at a loss is prohibited under state law ^[31].

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported (Aug 8) that Freedom Fuel Network's newest station, on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia's Bustleton section and selling regular gas for $3.79 a gallon, is owned by Celik Plaza II l.l.c., which had previously run the site under a Red Lion Fuel banner — with Engin Celik listed as a principal of the company ^[30].

The same report found that a separate Freedom Fuel station on Bustleton Avenue — one of at least six locations linked to Cherry Hill developer Shamikh Kazmi and his brother Syed Kazmi — has an expired fuel dispensing license and failed a city inspection last week, according to city records; if unresolved, the station could be forced to close by Sept. 4 ^[30].

The Washington Post reported (Aug 7) that Freedom Fuel Network has grown to 29 stations, adding four locations this week — including a Roosevelt Boulevard site in Philadelphia rebranded from "Red Lion" — and that its outlets previously operated under more than a dozen different brand names, among them Sunoco, Exxon, Karco and Gas N Go ^[29].

The Post commissioned an analysis from fuel supply-chain firm FuelTrust estimating the chain forwent as much as $24,000 a day — roughly $360,000 over its first two weeks — by underpricing competitors at its $3.47 launch price ^[29]. Prices have since climbed: many stations topped $4 a gallon in late July, and the network's median price has settled at $3.89, about 25 cents below nearby competitors, per a Post review of GasBuddy listings ^[29]. A Drexel University finance professor who reviewed the FuelTrust data for the Post said the shrinking gap is "more what you'd see as cheap fuel runs out," though he could not determine from the report alone whether the fuel simply cost Freedom Fuel less or someone else covered the difference ^[29].

The Post also added ownership detail: Blue Owl Capital, which owns about a third of the network's properties, is led by billionaires Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz — the latter a part-owner of the Washington Commanders — and Trump himself once held up to $25 million in Blue Owl stock before selling most of it, per his latest financial disclosure ^[29]. The Post could not independently confirm the Associated Press's earlier count of 14 Kazmi-managed stations, identifying at least six, and reported that one station run by Syed Kazmi on Bustleton Avenue has an expired fuel-dispensing license and faces closure by Sept. 4 after failing a renewal inspection ^[29]. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement that "no other entity or person" is subsidizing the prices and that neither Trump nor his businesses hold a financial stake in the network ^[29].

The Associated Press reported (Jul 22), via The Philadelphia Inquirer, two new financial threads in the Freedom Fuel ownership picture. Trump personally held up to $25 million in stock in Blue Owl Capital — the investment firm that leases eight of the network's stations to the Kazmi-linked operators — though his most recent financial disclosure shows he has since sold almost all of that stake ^[28].

The AP also reported that Syed Kazmi, one of the two brothers already tied to 14 of the network's 25 stations, was separately hit with a $380,000 judgment two years ago after 7-Eleven sued him over a Lawrenceville, New Jersey franchise, accusing him of "dishonest, unethical, immoral" conduct amid unsanitary conditions and inventory shortfalls ^[28]. The White House told the AP it has had "discussions with individuals who set up the network" while maintaining it has no formal involvement or funding role ^[28].

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported (Jul 21) that Freedom Fuel Network finally issued an on-the-record statement after weeks of declining to respond to reporters ^[27]. A company spokesperson said Freedom Fuel receives no government subsidies and does not obtain its fuel at a lower cost than competitors, and claimed the below-market pricing would continue "for as long as the company chooses" ^[27].

The outlet's own price check found the discount has narrowed further: three Philadelphia stations and two Delaware County locations in the network were selling gas at $3.92 a gallon on Monday, versus $3.89 to $4.09 at nearby competitors ^[27]. Philadelphia's overall average price was $4.17 a gallon Monday, up from $3.95 the week before ^[27], while two South Jersey locations (Marlton and West Berlin) still undercut nearby competitors by roughly 10 cents a gallon ^[27].

The company also confirmed it is expanding, saying on its website it has been "flooded" with requests to bring Freedom Fuel Network to new areas and citing "overwhelming demand for additional locations," though it gave no timeline or station count ^[27].

Fortune reported (Jul 20) that Blue Owl Capital — the real-estate investment firm previously reported to lease stations to Shamikh Kazmi — publicly acknowledged its role in the network for the first time ^[25]. The firm said it "is not involved in the tenant's operations or business decisions," describing itself strictly as landlord to the independent station operators ^[25]. Fortune's reporting also puts a number on Blue Owl's footprint: the firm owns roughly a third of the 25-station network's real estate ^[25].

Separately, Freedom Fuel Network posted its first direct public response to the ownership scrutiny on its own website this week ^[26]. The statement dismisses the reporting as "misinformation and baseless speculation" and says the company is "proudly lowering its prices to benefit our community" ^[26]. It credits President Trump's "strong endorsement" for what it calls "explosive growth," citing volume increases of more than 50%, and over 100% at some locations, since launch ^[26].

The Associated Press reported (Jul 20), distributed via ABC News, that the ownership picture behind Freedom Fuel Network snapped into sharper focus: fourteen of the network's 25 stations are controlled by companies linked to two brothers, Shamikh and Syed Kazmi ^[24]. Shamikh Kazmi is leasing eight of those stations from Blue Owl Capital, a real-estate investment firm, according to state records cited by the wire service ^[24] — though the AP noted no one at the White House who dealt with Freedom Fuel Network said they had specifically spoken or worked with Syed Kazmi ^[24].

The key new financial tie: Trump's own financial disclosures show he has owned up to $25 million worth of Blue Owl stock, though his most recent filing states he has sold almost all of that stake ^[24]. The White House repeated its position on the record: "The Administration is not involved in the company, nor has the Administration given the company any funding. There is no other entity or person subsidizing the lower gasoline costs" ^[24].

WOLF-TV/*Fox56 reported (Jul 18) that Freedom Fuel Network's advertised $3.47-a-gallon launch price has effectively evaporated: several stations now charge roughly $3.92 a gallon, in line with nearby competitors, after climbing from an initial jump to about $3.57 within days of the July 7 rollout [23]. The below-market price that drew Trump's promotion appears to have been a short-lived promotional rate rather than a sustained subsidy*, per the station's report, which cites industry analysts saying the steep initial discount 'appeared to be more of a promotional strategy than a pricing model that could be sustained long term' ^[23].

Ownership still isn't disclosed in the new reporting: the outlet notes Freedom Fuel operates through an undisclosed Delaware LLC, and an attorney connected to its trademark registration has declined to identify the owners, with the White House again saying prices reflect the private company's own market decisions rather than federal involvement ^[23].

PhillyVoice reported (Jul 16) new detail on the financial track record of Shamikh Kazmi, the third businessman linked to Freedom Fuel Network stations ^[22]. A federal judge ruled Kazmi's company failed to pay $700,000 in rent at 17 gas stations it operated in Florida, after which the franchisor lawfully terminated the franchise agreements — Kazmi had argued the shortfall came from the franchisor withholding credit-card proceeds during a separate contract dispute ^[22].

A second federal judge entered default judgment against a Kazmi company in February over roughly $667,000 worth of fuel a distributor said it was not fully paid for after an August 2021 delivery, with the judge citing the defendants' "serial flouting of Court orders and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure" during the case ^[22]. Kazmi operates 17 gas stations in New Jersey, including five that are part of the Freedom Fuel Network, but the reporting does not identify who is funding the network's below-cost pricing ^[22].

The Washington Examiner reported (Jul 15) that a third businessman, Shamikh Kazmi, has been identified as linked to the Freedom Fuel venture ^[21]. The outlet described Kazmi as a New Jersey businessman who has operated fuel retail and distribution businesses across the East Coast ^[21], adding a name with direct fuel-industry experience alongside the previously reported Randy Brown and Yoni Gontownik.

The report still does not disclose who funds the below-cost pricing or clarify Kazmi's exact role or ownership stake in the network ^[21].

The Newsground reported (Jul 10) that Delaware corporate records show Baltimore Ravens special teams coach Randy Brown and former Mercuria trader Yoni Gontownik signed the formation documents for Freedom Fuels Network LLC ^[19], with Gontownik signing on behalf of PJA Properties LLC, listed as a member of the network ^[19]. Brown, a former Democratic mayor of Evesham Township, New Jersey who switched to the GOP in 2010, has since called himself a "proud Trump supporter" ^[19]; Gontownik previously worked as an investment director at commodities trader Mercuria Energy and, before that, spent eight years at GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund ^[19]. Neither man, nor Mercuria, responded to questions about the company's financing or ownership structure ^[19].

The Daily Beast amplified the story (Jul 13), crediting The Newsground's reporting on Brown and Gontownik as the first identification of who actually formed the parent LLC — distinct from the individual station operators (like Diwan Petrol's Shamikh Kazmi) previously named by The Philadelphia Inquirer ^[20].

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported (July 10, 2026) the first names attached to the network's stations ^[18] — a partial answer to the ownership question at the center of this dossier. Cherry Hill developer Shamikh Kazmi, listed as president of Diwan Petrol Inc., operates a Bensalem, Pa. location, while a single family running a cluster of LLCs (Syan I Inc., Syan Investment LLC, and Fernwood Realty Co.) operates roughly five stations across Delaware County and Philadelphia ^[18].

Mebro checked it. We confirmed the operators the Inquirer named — but they are the on-the-ground station franchisees, not the people behind 'Freedom Fuel Network LLC,' the Delaware entity whose members, financing, and fuel suppliers remain undisclosed ^[18]. Who ultimately owns and bankrolls Freedom Fuel is still unverified — the record's central question stands.