Business & Finance
Lawsuit alleges Trump-promoted Freedom Fuel stations sold unpaid gasoline
A fuel distributor claims a middleman company acquired $4 million in fuel without paying, passing some of it to the heavily discounted network.
The short version
- Fuel distributor Mansfield Oil filed a federal lawsuit alleging that businessman Syed Kazmi and his company, KRSM, failed to pay for over 1.1 million gallons of fuel worth approximately $4 million.
- The lawsuit claims a portion of this unpaid fuel was sold to the Freedom Fuel Network, which garnered national praise from President Donald Trump in July for selling heavily discounted gas at 25 locations.
- KRSM's legal representative has disputed the allegations, framing the lawsuit as an accounting dispute over mispriced invoices.
Key facts
- Mansfield Oil filed a federal lawsuit on August 19 against businessman Syed Kazmi and his company, KRSM, over unpaid fuel invoices.[CNBC]
- The lawsuit alleges KRSM obtained more than 1.1 million gallons of fuel from a Pennsylvania terminal between May and July, valued at roughly $4 million, and failed to pay for it.[CNBC]
- The lawsuit does not name the Freedom Fuel Network as a defendant or accuse it of wrongdoing, though it alleges that unpaid fuel helped enable some of the network's discounted sales.[CNBC]
- On August 28, a federal judge partially granted Mansfield's request for a preliminary injunction, ordering the defendants to maintain a bank account balance of at least $2.75 million.[CNBC]
- President Donald Trump promoted Freedom Fuel Network in early July on Truth Social when the chain offered gas at $3.47 a gallon at 25 locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.[CNBC]
- White House officials stated that the administration has had no contact or dealings with the defendants.[CNBC]
What remains uncertain
- The exact volume of the disputed fuel that was supplied to Freedom Fuel stations remains unspecified.[CNBC]
- The precise business relationship between KRSM, Syed Kazmi, and the Freedom Fuel Network is unclear, though at least six New Jersey locations are managed by Syed Kazmi's brother, Shamikh Kazmi.[CNBC]