Freedom Fuel Network Opens Detroit Station As Supply Lawsuit Intensifies

According to CNBC, the Freedom Fuel Network opened a new gas station in Detroit, where regular unleaded was selling for $3.47 a gallon, making it the cheapest gas in Michigan versus the state average of $4.09, according to GasBuddy. The Harper Avenue site is the chain's first location outside New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where it has 29 stations. The expansion comes as Mansfield Oil Company of Gainesville, Georgia, presses a lawsuit in Philadelphia federal court over alleged unpaid fuel invoices tied to businessman Syed Kazmi and his company KRSM. Mansfield said in a Thursday filing that KRSM is $2.25 million short of a court-ordered $2.75 million balance in an M&T Bank checking account and that the account now belongs to a different Kazmi-related entity called Universal. Mansfield's Aug. 19 suit alleges KRSM obtained more than 1.1 million gallons of fuel from a Pennsylvania terminal between May and July and failed to pay about $4 million after invoicing. Freedom Fuel is not a defendant in the case. A KRSM lawyer said the company disputes the allegations and described the matter as an accounting dispute over fuel invoices mispriced by Mansfield Oil. Freedom Fuel said on its website Thursday that it was expanding because of the network's success and the savings customers are seeing at the pump.