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Posted on 08/31/2026 10:22:18 PM PDT by thegagline
Back in July, a new chain of gas stations called the Freedom Fuel Network popped up in the Northeast, seemingly out of nowhere, with extremely attractive prices. It seemed to have friends in high places right from the very start, with its first retail site promoted by the White House’s official X account, and President Donald Trump lauding the company for “stepping up” as “a VERY smart Retailer.” The federal government denied that it was subsidizing Freedom Fuel or involved with the company on any level, so, naturally, people wondered how it managed to swoop in with gas 30 cents per gallon below the national average.
A new lawsuit purports to have the answer to that question: The gas was stolen.
That’s the claim from the Mansfield Oil Company of Gainesville, Georgia, which has sued New Jersey-based distributor KRSM for allegedly neglecting to pay it for 1.1 million gallons of fuel, valued at $4 million. KRSM then allegedly turned around and sold some of that gas to Freedom Fuel at a discount, which it would’ve been able to do, per the suit, because it never paid Mansfield for it in the first place. *** ***While it’s unclear where each of those 1.1 million gallons ended up, Mansfield believes that some of it was delivered to at least 10 of Freedom’s 29 stores across New Jersey and Pennsylvania.***
Making this all even stranger, ever since Freedom Fuel Network’s inception—and despite its social media boost from the Trump administration—nobody has been able to figure out who actually owns the chain. KRSM and Kazmi deny any relationship to it. And a White House spokesperson told the Times that “the Administration has had zero contact or dealings with the defendant: KRSM Inc or Sayed Kazmi.”***
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
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I’m wary of Circle K gas. No way I’d put “Freedom Fuel” in the tank.
Good one.
Maybe it's the same people who own the learing centers and hospices. You're a reporter, Adam Ismail. Look into it.
Men with the names like Luigi and Mario.
Channel 6 in Philly did some digging and came up with Syed Kazmi and his brother Shamikh, Randy Brown (former mayor and Baltimore Ravens coach) and Yoni Gontownik (investment banker & Israel PAC donor):
I only buy gas for my baby from reputable named stations.
Nick Shirley would figure it out in a New York minute.
Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch!
TANSTADL!!
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Discounted Lunch ?
I’m in trouble now...
30 cents lower? There is a 20 cent difference here from one cluster of stations to another, a couple miles away, all in the same tax district. It’s been “holding” for a few days, so, I’m not sure what’s up with it.
Fuel prices are high because we sold out filling stations and convenience stores to Indians. What use to be cheap fuel and high inside prices has now become scalping at the pump. What is left of American owned stores will follow suite out of profits and claim “look at the price down the road”.
Mansfield believes that some of it was delivered to at least 10 of Freedom’s 29 stores across New Jersey and Pennsylvania.***
The Freedom Fuel Network is a private company registered in Delaware, but its exact final ownership remains opaque, with operations tied to a network of independent owners, real estate groups, and distributors.
Key Individuals and Entities Involved
<><>Founders/Incorporators: Baltimore Ravens assistant coach Randy Brown and former commodities trader Yoni Gontownik signed the company’s certificate of formation in Delaware.
<><>Operators and Distributors: Developer Shamikh Kazmi and his brother Syed Kazmi (head of distributor KRSM Inc.) operate or supply a significant portion of the locations, though KRSM faces a recent lawsuit from Mansfield Oil over unpaid fuel costs.
<><>Property Owners: Asset manager Blue Owl Capital owns or leases the property for about a third of the locations, though they state they have no role in business operations. <><>Other locations are tied to Chicago-based real estate portfolio groups.
<><>Government Stance: Despite initial promotion by the White House, the federal government maintains it has no ownership, involvement, or financial stake in the network.
“Kazmi” is a Muslim surname of Arabic and Persian origin that is most commonly found among South Asian families in Pakistan and India, as well as in parts of the Middle East.
The Freedom Fuel Network is a private company registered in Delaware, but its exact final ownership remains opaque, with operations tied to a network of independent owners, real estate groups, and distributors.
Founders/Incorporators include former commodities trader Yoni Gontownik who signed the company’s certificate of formation in Delaware.
prospect.org
EXCERPT: Gontownik has been referenced as a “former” trader with the low-key Swiss commodities trading firm Mercuria, though the affiliation was current as of a $500 donation he made in March 2026 to Josh Gottheimer’s (by then abandoned) gubernatorial campaign. (Gontownik also donated to Bob Menendez in January, fully a year after he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.) Inquiries to Mercuria’s U.S. headquarters in Houston as to the dates of Gontownik’s employment went unreturned.
It’s worth discussing Gontownik’s relationship with the Israel lobby. He is the son of Jerry Gontownik, a New Jersey real estate developer and son of a survivor of the Stutthof concentration camp, who has been active in politics since at least the 1980s, when he served as a vice president of a group that organized a 1988 lobbying visit to Washington to meet with 20 senators and a cadre of senior White House foreign-policy staffers along with then-Education Department official Bill Kristol.
In the early 1990s, amid a falling-out with George H.W. Bush over his withholding of $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel as a ploy to secure an agreement to halt the expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land, Jerry Gontownik helped found NORPAC, a kind of grassroots New Jersey–based satellite to AIPAC that hosts an annual D.C. lobbying trip, focuses its campaign giving on pro-Israel stalwarts like Chuck Schumer and Ted Cruz, and in which the whole family remains deeply involved to this day.
After supporting Clinton and Gore, Jerry Gontownik worked with Jack Abramoff to build a coalition of emphatic George W. Bush loyalists in northern North Jersey.
Yoni Gontownik’s brothers Ezra and Ari are also deeply entrenched in right-wing Zionist politics: Ezra serves on the board of a foundation that funds the hard-right East Jerusalem settlement Ateret Cohanim and was referenced in media reports as serving as an official representative of the “Adelson Family” at a 2024 meeting convened in Sun Valley to introduce finance bigwigs to Argentine President Javier Milei, and Ari co-founded a constellation of nonprofits dedicated to “combin[ing] research, education and technology innovation to counter antisemitism and hate online and offline” and subsidizing summer camp for at-risk Jewish Israeli youth.
Yoni has served on the boards of NORPAC and a related outfit that lobbies for school vouchers for religious education.
“Men with the names like Luigi and Mario.”
More like Muhammed, Idi, and Click-Click.
That’s the kind of theft I had in mind too
“I only buy gas for my baby from reputable named stations.”
Ditto for us. It would be nice to get the cheap gas at Kroger, Costco, etc., but we feel safer with Exxon and Shell.
This story makes my head spin. Is EVERYBODY a crook?
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