Freedom Fuel’s $3.47 Gas Now Carries a $3.99 Million Bill

Mansfield Oil Company of Gainesville, Inc. wants $3,998,868.46 for 1,124,594 gallons of fuel it says KRSM Inc. lifted and never paid for, some of it sold at Freedom Fuel pumps. Freedom Fuel is not a defendant. The network still advertises the $3.47 gallon President Donald Trump hailed in July as a patriotic price cut.

The White House said no one was subsidizing that discount. Mansfield’s civil complaint in Philadelphia says the publicity was possible because the wholesale bill was left unpaid.

Mansfield’s Complaint Puts a $3.99 Million Price on the Discount

The Georgia distributor filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on August 19. The defendants are KRSM, a Lawrenceville, New Jersey dealer at 1601 Princeton Avenue, and Syed Kazmi, named as KRSM’s president. The cause of action is a diversity contract case, docketed as 2:26-cv-06072, assigned to Judge Gerald Austin McHugh Jr.

From May 21 through July 7, KRSM lifted about 150 loads from Mansfield’s account at the Sunoco LP/Energy Transfer terminal in Aston, Pennsylvania, also called Twin Oaks. The 1,124,594 gallons billed at $3,998,868.46 sit at the center of the complaint. Split across those gallons, the invoice averages about $3.56 a gallon, a few cents above the $3.47 retail price the White House later advertised.

KRSM had been on Mansfield’s books since January 25, 2022, when it signed a commercial credit application promising to pay for fuel lifted on credit. The approved line, the complaint says, was $150,000. The Twin Oaks lift ran more than 26 times that cap. Full payment was due by electronic transfer within 10 days of an invoice, with interest at 1.5% a month after that.

THE WHOLESALE BILL IN THE COMPLAINT

Mansfield says a data-receiving error kept it from invoicing until early July. On or about July 8 it called Kazmi, sent the bills, and then adjusted what it called minor pricing discrepancies. Revised invoices went out July 17, with notice that drafts would start July 27. Mansfield’s bank reported on July 28 that KRSM had refused the July 27 and July 28 drafts.

The complaint adds counts for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, an action for the price under Pennsylvania’s commercial code, account stated, conversion, and a freeze on KRSM’s bank funds. Conversion is the count that put the word theft into headlines. It is still a civil claim. No criminal charge is in this file.

KRSM was able to sell such fuel for such low prices and garner such publicity because it never paid Plaintiff for such fuel.

Mansfield Oil Company of Gainesville, Inc., complaint, E.D. Pa., Aug. 19, 2026

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$3.47 Was Pitched as Patriotism With No Subsidy

On July 1, Trump wrote on Truth Social that a “VERY smart Retailer, located throughout the Northeast,” was stepping up as the country headed into its 250th birthday. He said the retailer was taking the lead, that others should follow, and that “They are doing this because they love the U.S.A.” Gas had been climbing after the Iran war, with pump prices up more than 30% from a year earlier at the launch.

The White House followed on July 7 with a video of the first branded station in the Philadelphia area. The posted price, $3.47, was framed as a nod to the 47th president, about 50 cents under Pennsylvania’s statewide average in AAA figures cited at the time.

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2074499867989123417

A White House spokesperson said Freedom Fuel Network was a private company, that the administration had not funded it, and that “There is no other entity or person subsidizing the lower gasoline costs.” Officials said the retailer was simply cutting its margin. After the suit landed, a White House official said the administration had “zero contact or dealings with the defendant: KRSM Inc or Sayed Kazmi,” using that spelling of the name.

The brand’s own site still thanks Trump for the endorsement and answers “misinformation and baseless speculation” by saying it lowered prices to help the local economy. That is the same claim the White House made in July. Mansfield’s complaint is that the cheap gallons and the publicity rode on fuel that was never paid for.

Who Operates the Freedom Fuel Stations?

Freedom Fuel Network LLC was registered in Delaware on June 23, 2026, a week before Trump’s post. The certificate of formation was signed by Randy Brown, a Baltimore Ravens senior special teams coach and the mayor of Evesham Township, New Jersey, where one branded station sits, and by Yoni Gontownik, a New Jersey investor who previously worked in commodities at Mercuria. Neither has been named in the Mansfield suit.

The website describes a privately owned network of operators, haulers, and partners, not a single owned chain. Blue Owl Capital, a New York investment firm, owns about a third of the properties and leases them out. A Blue Owl spokesman, Andrew Williams, has said the firm is not involved in tenant operations or business decisions, though it requires tenants to follow environmental rules.

THE PEOPLE AROUND THE PUMPS

• Randy Brown: Signed the Delaware certificate; Ravens special-teams coach and Evesham mayor; has called himself a proud Trump supporter.
• Yoni Gontownik: Co-signed the certificate; former energy and commodities trader now based in New Jersey.
• Syed Kazmi: President of KRSM and a named defendant; Mansfield’s lawyer, Urs Broderick Furrer, also calls him a principal owner of KRSM.
• Shamikh Kazmi: Syed’s brother; listed as authorized operator of 17 New Jersey stations owned by Blue Owl, including five in the original Freedom Fuel set, in a letter Blue Owl sent to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
• Blue Owl Capital: Landlord on about a third of the sites under triple-net leases, including the Dresher, Pennsylvania station that opened the rollout.

Public records have tied at least six Freedom Fuel locations to Shamikh Kazmi. A person familiar with the Freedom Fuel business has said KRSM and Syed Kazmi “are not associated with the Freedom Fuel Network in any capacity.” The complaint takes the other view. It calls the branded sites “its stations,” meaning KRSM’s, and says some of the Twin Oaks fuel was sold there.

In February, a federal judge in New Jersey ordered Syed Kazmi and Shamikh Kazmi to pay more than $600,000 to a fuel supplier that accused them of taking more than 200,000 gallons. That case is separate. It is why a new unpaid-fuel complaint against Syed Kazmi did not land on a blank record.

Carrier Records Point to 10 Branded Sites

Furrer has said delivery records from a carrier that lifted fuel off Mansfield’s account, at KRSM’s request, show several hundred thousand gallons went to at least 10 addresses listed on the Freedom Fuel Network website between May 21 and July 7. He has also said that since the complaint was filed, KRSM has not paid Mansfield for the fuel delivered. The complaint itself never names those 10 stations and never says what share of the 1,124,594 gallons reached a branded pump.

KRSM has failed to pay for fuel that they lifted off of Mansfield’s account. That is not an accounting dispute. The fuel was delivered to at least 10 of the Freedom Fuel Network locations, as listed on the Freedom Fuel Network’s website.

Urs Broderick Furrer, attorney for Mansfield Oil

That gap matters for the brand. A motorist who filled up at $3.47 in July received cheap gas either way. The lawsuit does not accuse Freedom Fuel Network LLC of conversion. It accuses the dealer that, Mansfield says, put some of the unpaid gallons into those tanks.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The parties: Only KRSM and Syed Kazmi are defendants; Freedom Fuel is not on the caption.
• The lift: The complaint’s working total is 1,124,594 gallons from Twin Oaks, not a criminal indictment.
• The 10 sites: Furrer cites carrier records for deliveries to at least 10 website locations, totaling several hundred thousand gallons, not the full lift.
• The White House line: Officials said the administration did not fund the network and later said they had no dealings with KRSM or Kazmi.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The branded share: No public filing yet shows how many of the 1,124,594 gallons were sold at Freedom Fuel pumps.
• Control of the brand: Brown and Gontownik signed the LLC; Kazmi-linked companies operate some stations; the network denies a KRSM tie.
• The July 30 record: Kazmi’s August 25 filing attached an account record dated July 30 that he presented as a payment to Mansfield; the complaint still said that as of August 17 it had received no payment on the 150 loads.

In July, New Jersey’s attorney general said the office was looking at whether the network complied with state law. Selling gasoline at a loss is barred there. That inquiry is not this lawsuit, and it has not produced a public finding in the Philadelphia file.

KRSM Calls the Bills a Pricing Error

Kazmi answered under oath on August 25. In a court declaration he said he did not agree that Mansfield’s amounts were correct or owed. He pointed to discrepancies in the invoices, including charges that looked as if they had been counted twice, and said KRSM had already disputed the bills before the complaint. KRSM also disputes the claim that it sold all 1,124,594 gallons.

Mauro Tucci, a lawyer for KRSM, has kept that line in public comments. Paul Toner is also on the defense side; George S. Gossett Jr. filed the August 25 opposition papers. Tucci’s description of the case is short, and it is the whole defense in one sentence.

KRSM disputes the allegations in this case, which is an accounting dispute over fuel invoices mis-priced by Mansfield Oil. We will not be commenting further on this pending litigation.

Mauro Tucci, attorney for KRSM

Furrer has rejected that frame. If this were only a pricing spat, he has said, KRSM would have paid the undisputed piece. Instead, he said, the dealer lifted the fuel and “has not paid one dollar towards the $4,000,000 that KRSM owes Mansfield,” using a rounded figure for the $3,998,868.46 invoice. Mansfield’s own complaint admits the delayed invoices. It also says a billing error does not waive the right to be paid.

On the phone from July 27 through August 10, the complaint says, Kazmi told Mansfield staff that KRSM would pay for all the fuel it received. Those calls sit in the file next to the refused drafts. The court has not decided who is right about the numbers.

The Court Ordered $2.75 Million Left in the Bank

McHugh moved fast. On August 20 he issued a temporary restraining order, set a hearing for August 27 in Courtroom 9B at the James A. Byrne United States Courthouse, and required Mansfield to post a $100,000 bond. Defendants were barred, for the moment, from emptying a specified account. On August 28, after the hearing, he granted the preliminary injunction in part.

Defendants must keep at least $2.75 million in the M&T Bank account identified in the parties’ electronic transfer agreement, an account number ending in 7805. The order did not decide the $3,998,868.46 claim. It was a hold, not a verdict.

THE PHILADELPHIA DOCKET

1. January 25, 2022: KRSM signs Mansfield’s commercial credit application.
2. May 21 to July 7, 2026: KRSM lifts about 150 loads, 1,124,594 gallons, from Twin Oaks.
3. July 17, 2026: Mansfield sends revised invoices and warns that drafts start July 27.
4. July 27 and 28, 2026: Mansfield’s bank reports that KRSM refused the drafts.
5. August 19, 2026: Mansfield files the complaint and asks for a freeze.
6. August 28, 2026: McHugh orders a $2.75 million floor in the M&T account.
7. September 1, 2026: KRSM and Kazmi notice an interlocutory appeal; Mansfield moves for contempt, citing an M&T balance of $589,513.68.
8. September 3, 2026: McHugh tells the parties to meet and send a discovery schedule by September 11.

The contempt papers, visible on the Eastern District docket, say M&T confirmed the account held $589,513.68. That is $2,160,486.32 below the floor. A later Mansfield filing, submitted September 3, says the firm learned from the bank that the account “now belongs to some different Kazmi-related entity named ‘Universal,’” contrary to KRSM’s claim of ownership. “The revelation that the account is now owned by ‘Universal’ also raises serious concerns that funds are being dissipated while KRSM fails to maintain the $2.75 million amount Ordered by the Court,” Mansfield wrote.

Furrer said Mansfield has asked the court to enforce the order and to allow limited discovery into where the money went. Tucci said KRSM had already noticed its appeal of the August 28 order to the 3rd Circuit, remains in compliance, and will respond to the contempt motion. McHugh, in an order the afternoon of September 3, said the parties shall meet and confer and give him a proposed discovery schedule no later than September 11, and that a failure to cooperate would mean he sets the dates himself.

Harper Avenue Gets the Same $3.47 Sign

While that fight sat in Philadelphia, the brand moved. Freedom Fuel’s site now says the network is now live in Detroit on Harper Avenue, at 17046 Harper Ave, Detroit, MI 48224, the first stop outside Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Regular unleaded there was $3.47, the same presidential number from July. GasBuddy’s Michigan average of $4.09 made that 62 cents cheaper than the state. Three stations at the Cadieux and Harper intersection were at $4.10.

THE HARPER AVENUE PRICE

• The pump: $3.47 a gallon for regular, matching the July Philadelphia rollout.
• The gap: 62 cents under the $4.09 Michigan average on GasBuddy when the Detroit stop was reported.
• The footprint: 29 stations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, plus this first site in Michigan.
• The volume claim: The network says the original 25 stations saw average volume up more than 50%, with some locations more than doubling.

Those original 25 were 20 in Pennsylvania and five in New Jersey. Four more in those two states brought the map to 29 before Detroit. In the first days of July, some Philadelphia-area sites had already moved off $3.47 to $3.57 on GasBuddy. By early September, Freedom Fuel was no longer the cheapest chain in Pennsylvania and New Jersey on that tracker. Detroit put the showpiece number back on a sign anyway.

Jobian Starks, a Detroit customer at the Harper Avenue lot, said the drop looked unusual and that the city needed a break on gas. He also said that if the unpaid-fuel claims were messy, he was willing to look past them for the price. That is the bargain the July rollout taught. Drivers get the 62 cents. The wholesaler is in court over $3,998,868.46. The brand that collected the White House video is not on the caption, and it is still opening stores.

McHugh has not ruled on contempt. He has told both sides to put a discovery plan in his hands by September 11. Until then the $3.47 on Harper Avenue and the $589,513.68 in the M&T account are the two numbers the file actually has in public view.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a civil lawsuit, court orders, and public statements by the companies and officials involved. It is informational only and is not legal advice, investment advice, or a finding that any person stole fuel, breached a contract, or violated a court order. Anyone with a legal interest in the Mansfield-KRSM case, or in fuel supply contracts of this kind, should consult a licensed attorney who can read the docket and the exhibits. Figures, account balances, station counts, and case status come from the complaint, docket entries, and statements dated in this piece and may change as the court rules or as the network adds locations.