President Donald Trump publicly praised the mysterious new "Freedom Fuel Network" for its patriotic low gas prices. A new lawsuit alleges the real secret behind those cheap fill-ups was theft.
Georgia-based fuel supplier Mansfield Oil Co. filed a complaint on August 19 claiming that KRSM, a company run by New Jersey fuel businessman Syed Kazmi, acquired more than 1 million gallons of fuel, worth roughly $4 million, from a Sunoco terminal and never paid for it. Some of that fuel, the lawsuit alleges, ended up at stations within the Freedom Fuel Network, which now operates 29 locations.
The complaint, detailed by Politico on Friday, doesn't mince words about how the stations pulled off their eye-catching prices.
"KRSM was able to sell such fuel for such low prices and garner such publicity because it never paid Plaintiffs for such fuel," the complaint states.
Freedom Fuel stations became a national talking point ahead of July 4th, when Trump posted praise for their $3.47-a-gallon pricing, tied to his status as the 47th president, writing that the owners were "doing this because they love the U.S.A." The White House later shared a video of grateful customers thanking Trump directly. Neither the White House nor the network's owners — later identified as a former New Jersey mayor and a GOP-donor NFL special teams coach — would explain how prices stayed so far below competitors.
KRSM pushed back hard on the new allegations.
"We will not be commenting further on this pending litigation," KRSM said in an emailed statement, characterizing the dispute as a mix-up over misplaced invoices.
The White House distanced itself entirely from Kazmi and his company, insisting there's been "zero contact or dealings" with either. A source close to Freedom Fuel similarly denied any association with KRSM.
It's not the Kazmi brothers' first brush with fraud allegations. A federal judge entered default judgment against Shamikh Kazmi's company in February after what the judge called "serial flouting of Court orders," in a separate case alleging roughly $667,000 in unpaid fuel theft. Syed Kazmi's KRSM also lost a 2024 judgment to 7-Eleven, which had accused the company of stealing tens of thousands of dollars in cigarettes.
The new lawsuit further alleges KRSM isn't even authorized to legally conduct business in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, where regulators have so far declined to comment.
