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Russian (RU) A chain of gas stations that lowered prices last month in response to President Donald Trump's call for cheaper fuel sparked a mystery over how it was able to sell at such a discount.
A new lawsuit offers a possible answer: A fuel supplier alleges that it was not paid for gas that was ultimately delivered to stations in the Freedom Fuel Network.
Mansfield Oil Company of Gainesville claimed in a federal lawsuit this month that New Jersey businessman Syed Kazmi, and his company, KRSM, took more than a million gallons of fuel from a terminal in Pennsylvania between late May and early July - nearly $4 million worth - but never paid for it.
Some of that fuel was supplied to at least 10 Pennsylvania gas stations listed on the Freedom Fuel Network website, Urs Broderick Furrer, a lawyer for the Georgia-based Mansfield, told The Washington Post.
"KRSM was able to sell such fuel for such low prices and garner such publicity because it never paid Plaintiff for such fuel," the lawsuit says.
Paul Toner, a lawyer representing Kazmi and KRSM Inc., told The Post that his clients deny the allegations. "This is an account dispute over fuel invoices, mis-priced by Mansfield," he said.
A White House official told The Post the Trump administration has had "zero contact or dealings" with Kazmi and KRSM Inc.
The Freedom Fuel Network was legally formed on June 25, when Randy Brown and Yoni Gontownik submitted incorporation documents to the state of Delaware. Brown is a special-teams coach for the Baltimore Ravens and has called himself "a proud Trump supporter." Gontownik is a New Jersey-based investor who previously worked for the energy and commodity group Mercuria. Neither responded to requests for comment.
In early July, the network began charging $3.47 per gallon - in honor of Trump, the nation's 47th president, Trump said at the time - at 25 stations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. That was about 40 cents a gallon below market prices, which had spiked due to the Iran war, The Post previously reported.
"A VERY smart Retailer, located throughout the Northeast, is stepping up" to lower gas prices, Trump wrote on Truth Social in early July. "This Retailer is taking the lead, and others should follow. They are doing this because they love the U.S.A."
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Aug. 19, cites the publicity Freedom Fuel stations received because of their low prices but does not name the network or stations as defendants or accuse them of wrongdoing. It also does not explain Kazmi's relationship to Freedom Fuel or specify what portion of the $4 million worth of gasoline went to stations within the network.
Syed Kazmi's brother, Shamikh, is listed as the facility operator for several of the Freedom Fuel stations, according to public records.
Trump's promotion of the stations set off a wave of news coverage citing analysts who questioned the sustainability of Freedom Fuel's prices.
Since then, prices at the stations have risen but remained below their competitors' in early August, according to a previous Post analysis. The network has also expanded, adding four additional stations to bring the total number to 29.
The Mansfield lawsuit, reported earlier by Politico, is the latest in a string of legal claims against the Kazmi brothers in recent years. They and their companies have been sued more than a dozen times for alleged financial misconduct, including fraud and unpaid debts. In several cases, they drew default judgments after failing to respond to the charges, court records show. In 2021, Shamikh Kazmi was accused of stealing more than $667,000 worth of fuel over 10 days from a supplier. Last November, a judge ordered him to repay the supplier in a default judgment.
KRSM Inc. picked up around 150 loads of fuel from Mansfield's supply terminal in Twin Oaks, Pennsylvania, between May 21 and July 7, the suit claims. KRSM had been a Mansfield client since 2022 and took the fuel under a commercial credit agreement that required payment at a later date.
The Twin Oaks terminal is within 35 miles of the vast majority of the Freedom Fuel Network stations.
When Mansfield began to try to draw payments from a KRSM bank account on July 27, the bank told the fuel supplier that Kazmi's company had refused to release the money, the lawsuit alleges. Kazmi subsequently promised to pay Mansfield for the fuel during multiple phone calls between then and Aug. 10, the suit alleges.
In a declaration filed on Aug. 25, Kazmi wrote that he "did not agree that the amounts Mansfield demanded were correct or owing." He and his attorney claimed there were discrepancies within the invoices, including charges that appeared to have been double counted.
On Friday, the district judge overseeing the case ordered Kazmi and KRSM to maintain at least $2.75 million in a bank account, according to court records.
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