Across the Philadelphia region, former Sunoco, Karco, and Gas n’ Go stations with makeshift Freedom Fuel Network signs have been selling less-expensive gas to drivers for about a week.
Who is behind the 25 gas stations selling Freedom Fuel in the Philadelphia region and how they’re able to offer gas 40 to 50 cents cheaper than nearby stations remains unclear.
Yet the effort has been promoted by both the White House and President Donald Trump, raising ethics concerns from the public and government watchdogs.
Richard Painter, who for two years served as chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, said it’s within a business owner’s First Amendment right to sell cheap gas, possibly at a loss, to “improve the image of the president and help the country through a national crisis.”
“The ethical issue is the involvement of the Trump administration,” he said, pointing to federal regulations that set standards of conduct for executive branch employees. “They simply can’t endorse it or have anything to do with it.”
An entity called “Freedom Fuel Network LLC,” based in Delaware, applied for a trademark on July 1. That same day, Trump promoted the network and said it was being run by a “very smart retailer” on his Truth Social account.
There are no businesses registered in either Pennsylvania or New Jersey under the name Freedom Fuel Network.
The White House did not respond to multiple requests to identify or provide contact information for the owners. A White House spokesperson would only say it’s a private company not purchasing gas at a discount or receiving government money.
Anna Vishev, the attorney who filed the Freedom Fuel Network trademark application, said she’d pass inquiries to her client, but The Inquirer never heard back.
Due to tight profit margins, stations that sell cheaper gas usually focus on making up the difference in other ways, such as convenience stores and car washes, according to Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores, a trade organization representing retail fuel outlets.
That doesn’t appear to be the case at many of the Freedom Fuel Network stores Inquirer reporters visited over the past couple of days. One location in Brookhaven, Pa., had an inoperable convenience store. Several were very small, somewhat run down, and offered a very limited selection of products.
“It’s difficult to see how these stations are making money,” Lenard said. “Those types of stations tend to be more dependent on gas margins.”
Lenard said it’s possible the Freedom Fuel Network branding is a temporary promotion, which isn’t unheard of in the fuel industry. T-Mobile partnered with Shell last month to offer $1.99-a-gallon gas at stations in Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago as part of an anniversary promotion.
Some Freedom Fuel stations were already raising gas prices by the end of the week, including in Bensalem, where gas was $3.57 a gallon Friday.
While questions remain about the owners and structure of the Freedom Fuel Network, Lenard said gasoline is a highly regulated industry and drivers shouldn’t worry about purchasing fuel from lesser-known brands.
“There shouldn’t be an issue with gas quality,” Lenard said. “When fuel comes out of the refinery, there’s nothing that says it’s BP gas, it’s Wawa gas. … It’s all blended together.”
A small network of local owners and past issues with stations
Inquirer reporters reached out to the parcel owners, leasees, and LLCs connected to at least 19 of the gas stations. Most calls and messages went unanswered, and on two occasions, reporters were directed to the Freedom Fuel website by LLC affiliates. In-person queries were also unsuccessful, with store attendants unaware of the origins of the branding change or unauthorized to speak on the matter.
The opaqueness behind a private operation receiving White House promotion has drawn endless scrutiny online and even an in-person protester at a Montgomery County location.
“Who is paying for this[?]” read a man’s sign earlier this week.
By the end of the week, Freedom Fuel offered limited remarks through the venture’s website, saying it “answered President Trump’s call to action to lower prices at the pump.” It went on to dismiss unspecified “misinformation and baseless speculation circulating.”
“As a result of lowering prices, 25 gas stations have experienced explosive growth — an average volume increase of more than 50 percent, with several locations surging over 100 percent,” said the message.
The company did not expand on how the operation came to be and how the discounts work, but at least two clusters of network participants have shared ownership ties, with one of the clusters promoting its participation on social media.
A local Karco Gas Instagram account promoted the Freedom Fuel transformation in its stories — at least two of its locations in Philadelphia and one in Bensalem are part of the network.
The Bensalem Freedom Fuel site has ties to Cherry Hill developer Shamikh Kazmi, who is listed as president of Diwan Petrol Inc. The business was ensnared in a lengthy trademark dispute with BP America Inc. and BP Products North America Inc. in 2021.
After failing to fully comply with a judge’s order to remove BP signage, four deputies with the U.S. Marshals Service seized remaining brand signs in June 2022, according to court documents.
Kazmi could not be reached for comment, but in February announced plans to expand his Yum Grills venture to 15 locations in the Philadelphia region, including an Eagleville gas station that is also part of the Freedom Fuel Network.
At least five other network locations are run by members of a family that operates gas stations in the region under various LLCs, including Syan I Inc, Syan Investment LLC, and Fernwood Realty Co.
The only other time one of the five locations across Delaware County and Philadelphia drew media attention was in 2021, when the Gas ‘N’ Go in Brookhaven experienced an unknown problem with fuel delivery. The subsequent oil spill resulted in dozens of dead frogs, turtles, fish, and a fox along a nearby waterway.
Another Freedom Fuel station, this one located in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia, was embroiled in a trademark dispute that ended with a judge ordering the removal of all Phillips 66 branding and a $20,000 judgment against KRSM Inc. and site owner Riar HR LLC in May.
An attorney for the defendants was not listed on the docket and calls to the owner of Riar HR LLC, the site’s owner, went unreturned.
How promotions have changed during the Trump era
Painter, who is now a law professor at the University of Minnesota, noted that stringent ethics rules have been in place since the Watergate scandal that limit using a public office to endorse any companies or organizations, whether they’re private or nonprofits.
It’s why Painter was vocal about concerns regarding the creation of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in 2017. When Joe Biden became president-elect, he encouraged his transition team to have Penn drop the name to avoid the appearance of impropriety when the university went about its fundraising for the center. That never happened.
Still, President Donald Trump and his administrations have taken very different approach to these ethics rules since his first term in office.
“We’ve seen multiple instances in which this president has chosen to endorse, in his official capacity, private companies and private organizations,” said Painter. “This is something I would have absolutely insisted not happen under the Bush administration.”
During this term Trump turned the White House Lawn into a Tesla showroom and just this week, Dell Technologies shares soared after he promoted them in the Oval Office.
For now, questions about the company’s structure and ties to the Trump administration continue to spark anger, skepticism, and curiosity.
“Customers are asking. We tell them to visit the website,” said Mike R., a manager of a few Freedom Fuel stations in Delaware County who declined to be fully identified, citing concern over his privacy. ”Frankly, I have no information.”
Meanwhile, Ankit Modi, the franchise owner of a Sunoco in Bensalem for the past 15 years, said the low prices of a Freedom Fuel station next door is impacting his business.
“People see the lower price and just go there,” Modi said. “I don’t know how it works.”
Modi said the Freedom Fuel signs looked temporary, and he expected the station to revert to Karco following the Fourth of July. That hasn’t happened. On Friday, Freedom Fuel was selling gas for 43 cents a gallon less than Modi’s Sunoco.
“I’m making just eight to 10 cents in profit [per gallon], so how are they able to sell for less without government help?” Modi said. “It’s shady and unheard of.”
Back in North Philadelphia, the lack of information wasn’t stopping drivers from pulling in and filling up their tanks.
“It doesn’t matter to me where it comes from if I see a good price,” said Jorge Mejia, who pumped gas into his car and had no clue what made the gas cheap. “I just hope it’s good.”
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