Retail gas stations touted by Trump racked up penalties in New Jersey
The operator behind Freedom Fuel retail gas stations has drawn a raft of penalties and fines from New Jersey regulators.
By Ry Rivard and James Bikales
08/07/2026 10:00 AM EDT
The operator behind at least six of the mysterious Freedom Fuel discount gas stations had faced a stream of nearly 200 penalties in New Jersey before President Donald Trump touted the network last month, according to state records POLITICO reviewed.
The penalties pertaining to safety and environmental violations laid out in New Jersey public records raise questions about how much the administration knew about the network that the White House promoted and Trump praised in social media posts and official press releases.
Gasoline prices have remained stubbornly high because of the disruptions in the global energy markets from the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, presenting a threat to Republicans’ narrow hold on Congress in the upcoming midterm election.
The White House had lauded the Freedom Fuel backers in the days before the July Fourth holiday as patriots who have helped tame prices at the pump.
“The President wants to see retailers lower their prices at the gas pump, and he supports retailers who have taken the initiative to do just that,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email. But the White House said it was not familiar with dealings between the owner of the sites and its affiliates and New Jersey regulators.
The Freedom Fuel Network is offering low-cost gasoline in the Philadelphia area. At least six locations in the Garden State are managed by businessman Shamikh Kazmi and owned by the publicly traded asset manager Blue Owl. Their prices, which were well below those of other retail stations in the area, have drawn the attention of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, since selling gasoline at a loss in the state is prohibited.
In May, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection levied a $429,900 penalty against 17 stations managed by Kazmi and owned by Blue Owl, according to an 88-page administrative order POLITICO obtained via public record requests. Those problems predate Freedom Fuel’s existence. But about half of that penalty was for issues at stations that are now part of the Freedom Fuel network. Those penalties are all related to the underground tanks that store fuel, but also include violations like submitting false information in an attempt to register the tanks, as well as air pollution control issues.
Reached by phone, Kazmi referred all questions on the Freedom Fuel Network to a form on its website before hanging up. Freedom Fuel did not respond to a request for comment through the form. The network recently added four additional station locations beyond its original 25, writing in a statement on its website that “with every new site, we’re driving down gas prices at the pump for more communities.”
A Blue Owl spokesperson said in an email that the company runs the properties through a triple-net lease structure.
“While Blue Owl is not involved in the tenants’ operations or business decisions, we require that tenants operate in compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations,” the spokesperson, Andrew Williams, said.
The Department of Environmental Protection, in its order, said the gas stations had “repeatedly, significantly and substantially failed to comply” with state law and repeatedly failed to comply with previous enforcement actions. In issuing penalties, it weighed the seriousness of violations and considered some of the problems it found “major.”
Since 2022, New Jersey has found 196 separate violations of state regulations according to the order issued by the department’s Division of Waste & Underground Storage Tanks Compliance and Enforcement.
Among the most severe penalties, regulators banned one gas station that is now part of the Freedom Fuel network in Atlantic County from receiving gas deliveries in 2023 because its storage tank wasn’t registered and needed repairs. Such a delivery ban is essentially the kiss of death for a gas station, because it prevents the station from selling gas until the ban is lifted by regulators.
According to the DEP’s May order, regulators sealed the gas delivery ports at that station, but the station repeatedly ignored the ban by cutting the seal and filling the tank with gas anyway. Officials considered this a “major” violation of state law and assessed a $50,000 penalty. The DEP also fined another station in Atlantic County $50,000 for ignoring a delivery ban there that same year. Those delivery bans were later lifted.
Other problems are newer. Two stations now in the Freedom Fuel network were barred from accepting fuel for a week in June due to problems with their tank registration. And after the president mentioned Freedom Fuel in a July 1 social media post and the White House posted a video touting the inexpensive gas on July 7, some stations continued to stumble.
One of the New Jersey stations in Camden County was briefly prevented from accepting fuel deliveries on July 9, though that ban was lifted the next day, according to DEP spokesperson Larry Hajna. A compliance official visited another station in Burlington County on July 8 and found it was operating without a valid air permit, according to a regulatory filing.
Hajna said that as of Thursday, the penalty from the May order had not been paid.
Trump recently disclosed that he bought and sold millions of dollars in Blue Owl stock last year and retains significant holdings. Blue Owl has many different operations and manages over $300 billion in assets.
The storage tanks issues are not the only ones facing the Freedom Fuel stations.
As POLITICO first reported, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said in July that it is looking into the Freedom Fuel Network and “conducting inspections to ensure that they are compliant with State law,” which also makes it illegal to sell gas below cost.
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