Who Is Paying for $3.47 Gas?

The White House promoted Freedom Fuel, a private network of discount stations. Public records identify multiple local operators, but not who controls the brand or bears the cost.

12 July 2026

Revised — 14 July 2026

What we found

• Multiple entities are associated with the locations. Public records and field reporting identify numerous pre-existing owners, lessees and operators behind many of the 25 stations. That finding is in tension with a White House official's statement that one private company "owns all 25," but it does not conclusively disprove it, because the record does not yet show what legal or contractual interest the word "owns" was meant to describe.
• The launch was prepared in advance. Domain registration (June 13), corporate formation (June 23) and trademark filings (July 1, with a third on July 9) preceded or coincided with the public rollout. Those records establish planning. They do not identify who conceived the campaign or whether its organizers coordinated operational details with White House personnel.
• The advertised price appears low relative to conventional cost estimates, but the economics are contested. One published estimate placed a conventional Pennsylvania break-even near $3.64 at launch, above the $3.47 price. A separate published analysis, citing regional margin data, concluded the network might plausibly make the numbers work. Actual invoices, rebates and store economics would be required to determine any station's true result.
• The public record does not identify the controlling principals or the financing arrangement. It remains unresolved whether operators funded a temporary promotion, suppliers granted concessions, the network reimbursed stations, an outside sponsor contributed, or some combination occurred.
• Official promotion is documented; origin and coordination are not. The President announced the launch, with operational specifics, before opening day, and the White House later published promotional material. The available evidence does not establish where the concept originated or who first contacted whom.

Evidence standard. Each load-bearing claim below carries one of four labels. DOCUMENTED: directly established by a primary record. CORROBORATED: supported by independent records, witnesses or reporting. INFERENCE: a bounded interpretation of documented facts, with alternatives stated. UNRESOLVED: the available evidence does not answer the question.

Developments since version 2 (as of 14 July 2026)

• A name has been reported on the formation papers. KYW Newsradio reported on July 10 that the June 23 Delaware registration was "signed by Yoni Gontownik, a financier with connections to the Singapore sovereign wealth fund," and that neither the company nor Gontownik responded to its requests for comment. DOCUMENTED as reported: KYW Newsradio (Audacy), July 10 — a single outlet; not yet corroborated by a second source or by the formation certificate itself, which remains the primary document to obtain. An identity caution is added to Appendix C.
• The signature price did not hold, but the discount persists. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, visiting a station on July 10, observed $3.57, up from the launch figure. DOCUMENTED: Inquirer, July 11. Station-level observations on July 8–9 put at least five network sites at $3.57 and one, on Tilton Road in Egg Harbor Township, at $3.89 — above the ~$3.64 conventional break-even estimate discussed in Section IV. DOCUMENTED: GasBuddy observations via USA Today, July 9. As of July 13, South Jersey reporting still described network stations as 40 to 50 cents cheaper than nearby competitors. DOCUMENTED: Inquirer, July 13. The price record is therefore no longer one number: sites now range from well below to above published break-even estimates, which keeps the economics contested rather than resolving them.
• The footprint extends beyond greater Philadelphia. A Camp Hill station in the Harrisburg area carried the brand at $3.57 on July 9. DOCUMENTED: CBS 21 (local21news), July 9. A relayed claim that the company "plans to continue expanding" is unattributed. DOCUMENTED as claim only: Fox56, July 8.
• The company answered critics without answering questions. As captured July 13, the company's website carries an extended statement describing "a privately owned and proudly patriotic company," repeating volume claims of more than 50 percent, and decrying "misinformation and baseless speculation." It names no owners, lists no address, and offers a contact form only. DOCUMENTED as self-published claims: company site, July 13 capture; posting date unknown.
• Congressional criticism, but no congressional process. Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon, Brendan Boyle and Dwight Evans criticized the network on July 11; Scanlon: "Someone is making it worthwhile for these independent stations to rebrand themselves and sell at under market rates" — an assertion, not a finding. No letters, hearings or formal inquiries have been announced, and the process avenues in Section VII remain unopened. DOCUMENTED: Inquirer, July 11. UNRESOLVED as to any funding mechanism, unchanged.
• The trademark file is quiet. As of July 13, the three applications show no office actions or new filings. DOCUMENTED: registry mirrors, July 13; TSDR confirmation still advised before publication-grade use.
• A street address for the Harrisburg-area station. Published station lists place the Camp Hill location at 3811 Hartzdale Drive (WFMZ and Fox56, July 8) — carried in earlier versions only as "Camp Hill / Harrisburg area." The July 14 records review found no other substantive public-record developments. DOCUMENTED as published: aggregated station lists from two outlets; the address has not been independently re-verified on site.
• A second outlet has reported names from the formation records, in a different role. The Newsground reported that the company's Delaware certificate of formation was signed by Randy Brown — a former mayor of Evesham Township, N.J., who serves as special-teams coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens — and that a company called PJA Properties LLC is a member of Freedom Fuel Network, with Yoni Gontownik signing in connection with PJA. DOCUMENTED as reported: The Newsground, citing Delaware records, USPTO filings and domain-registration data — a single outlet for these specifics. The role it describes for Gontownik (signing for a member entity) differs from KYW's earlier description (signing the registration itself); both could be accurate if they describe different documents, and neither has been verified against the certificate of formation, which remains the primary document to obtain. Appendix C is updated accordingly.
• The state record itself has been pulled. A direct search of the Delaware Division of Corporations registry confirms FREEDOM FUEL NETWORK, LLC, file number 10671921, formed June 23, 2026, registered agent The Corporation Trust Company, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington — and, as is standard for Delaware LLCs, it discloses no members, managers or officers. DOCUMENTED: state registry search, July 13–14. The certificate image, which would show signatures, is obtainable by paid order and had not been obtained as of this version.
• Archived pages show a host's name removed from a PAC's event listings. Archived captures on file with this desk show that a NORPAC (a New Jersey-based pro-Israel political action committee) event page for an April 14 reception for Rep. Mark Green was headed "Bellene & Yoni Gontownik welcome back Rep. Mark Green" in an April capture, and that the same page read "NORPAC Englewood welcomes back Rep. Mark Green" by a July 11 capture; a second event page, for a March 14 event with Sen. Josh Hawley, shows the same pattern between captures. DOCUMENTED: the change between dated captures. The Newsground separately reported that a NORPAC reference to Gontownik was removed after it contacted him. UNRESOLVED: who made the edits, precisely when, at whose request, or why. A routine template change de-naming hosts site-wide would produce the same result; the discriminating test — whether host names persist on event pages unconnected to Gontownik — is recorded in Appendix C and had not been run as of this version. Hosting a PAC event is lawful civic activity; the edits are recorded because a subject's public footprint changing during press inquiries is itself a documentable fact.

I. The sign and the official promotion

The first station the White House celebrated sits at 1400 Dreshertown Road in Upper Dublin Township, Pennsylvania, a former Sunoco now planted with American flags and selling regular gasoline at $3.47 a gallon, against $3.79 at a Citgo five minutes away and $3.85 at a nearby Gulf. DOCUMENTED: Philadelphia Inquirer field reporting, July 7. Twenty-five stations carry the Freedom Fuel brand, twenty in Pennsylvania and five in New Jersey. DOCUMENTED: company site; CBS location list. For context, the statewide averages that week were about $4.00 in Pennsylvania and $3.92 in New Jersey, with the national average near $3.89. DOCUMENTED: AAA, via The Hill and Fortune.

The President announced the venture on Truth Social on July 1, crediting an unnamed retailer and specifying the station count, the region and the July 3 launch date. DOCUMENTED: post text reproduced by ABC, CNN and others. On July 7, the official White House account on X published a promotional video, which the Inquirer described as undated, showing customers thanking the President by name, and tied the price to "our 47th President." DOCUMENTED: @WhiteHouse post; Inquirer.

II. The government's account, and the questions it leaves open

The White House's position has been consistent across outlets: Freedom Fuel Network is a private company; the administration is not involved and provided no funding; and no other entity or person is subsidizing the price, which officials attribute to the stations reducing their margins. DOCUMENTED: statements to TIME, CNN, ABC, CBS, NOTUS, Barron's, Moneywise. A named spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, told Fortune the company was "doing their part to answer the President's call" on prices. DOCUMENTED: Fortune. A White House official separately told TIME the company "owns all 25 locations." DOCUMENTED: TIME. By July 10, an official had added that prices at the stations "will fluctuate depending on market conditions." DOCUMENTED: The Hill.

Two aspects of that account are not yet supported by any public record. First, the ownership claim: what documents, if any, underlie the statement that one company owns all 25 sites, and what "owns" means there, is unknown. Second, the no-subsidy claim: the record does not show what basis the White House had for vouching for the private financial arrangements of a company whose owners it has not identified. Both are posed as written questions in Appendix D. UNRESOLVED.

It is useful to separate four propositions that are often blurred together: (1) the President knew about the launch in advance; (2) the White House promoted it; (3) White House personnel coordinated operational details; (4) the White House or an allied actor originated or financed it. On the current record, the first two are documented. The third and fourth are unresolved.

III. Who operates the stations

The Inquirer contacted the parcel owners, lessees and corporate entities connected to at least 19 of the 25 stations and, with ABC News separately reviewing public records and station histories, found independently owned local businesses, previously branded Sunoco, Valero, Gas N Go, Phillips 66, Gulf, Exxon and Karco, now operating under the new signage. CORROBORATED: Inquirer; ABC. No entity named Freedom Fuel Network is registered in Pennsylvania or New Jersey; the only registration is the Delaware company. DOCUMENTED: ABC review of state records. The company's own website describes a network of independently owned stations under a common brand, together with "convenience store operators, haulers, sign companies, and operational partners." DOCUMENTED: company site, as quoted by Barron's.

"Ownership" of a gas station is not one thing. The real estate, the pumps and tanks, the leasehold, the fuel license, the operating business, the fuel purchasing, the supply relationship, the trademark, any brand-license agreement, and any contractual right to set prices or reimburse discounts can each sit with different parties. The field findings establish that the property and operating layers involve multiple pre-existing local entities. They do not establish what interest, if any, the Delaware company holds at each site. INFERENCE, bounded: the White House claim is in tension with the operating record, pending a definition of "owns."

One further record bears on the question. A company actually transacting business at 25 locations in two states would generally be expected to register there as a foreign entity; the absence of any Pennsylvania or New Jersey registration is consistent with the Delaware company functioning as a brand or trademark holder rather than an operator, or alternatively with noncompliance. Either reading narrows what "owns all 25" could accurately describe. INFERENCE, alternatives stated.

The participating sites share a notable pattern: many appear to have been independent, recently de-branded, or outside active major-brand supply arrangements, several with documented prior disputes over branded signage (detailed, as records only, in Appendix F). Branded supply contracts generally constrain how quickly a franchised station can change its signage, which may have made rapid rebranding easier at precisely these sites. Whether that pattern functioned as a deliberate recruitment criterion cannot be established from public records; it would require the stations' supply agreements, termination dates and organizer testimony. A station-by-station evidence matrix for that purpose is in Appendix A. INFERENCE as hypothesis; UNRESOLVED as to intent.

The network, mapped

A regional network, not a national one. Twenty-five stations carry the brand — twenty in Pennsylvania, five in New Jersey. The map begins with the two states the record actually touches.

The flagship the White House celebrated. 1400 Dreshertown Road, Upper Dublin Township — a former Sunoco, $3.47 against $3.79 five minutes away, featured in the July 7 White House video.

A Greater Philadelphia cluster. Bristol (a former Valero), Bensalem (a former Karco), and sites in Philadelphia, Springfield and Lansdowne — the documented core, each pin an address in the public record.

Across the river into South Jersey. Marlton, West Berlin and two stations in Egg Harbor Township — the five New Jersey sites, still 40 to 50 cents under nearby competitors as of July 13.

One sign above break-even. By July 8 the Tilton Road station in Egg Harbor read $3.89 — above the roughly $3.64 conventional break-even. The signature price was already not one number.

And one outlier, ninety miles west. A Camp Hill station near Harrisburg — 3811 Hartzdale Drive, per published station lists — carried the brand at $3.57 on July 9: evidence the footprint reaches beyond the Philadelphia orbit, without yet defining its edge.

12 of 25 stations located from public records and field reporting

IV. What the price may cost, and who might bear it

The cost picture, assembled from published data:

• Average Pennsylvania rack (wholesale) price for regular: roughly $2.89 around the July 3 launch, rising 14 cents to $3.03 by July 9. DOCUMENTED: OPIS data as reported by ABC.
• Combined federal and Pennsylvania excise taxes: roughly 75 cents per gallon. DOCUMENTED: published rates.
• ABC News, using rack prices, taxes and delivery assumptions, estimated a conventional break-even near $3.64 at launch, and estimated the 25 stations could collectively lose more than a quarter-million dollars per month at $3.47. CORROBORATED: ABC industry-data analysis.
• Margin benchmarks vary by measure: gross margins on gasoline have run near 40 cents in recent years (Tom Kloza, Gulf Oil), regional gross margins of 26 to 53 cents over the past month (OPIS's Denton Cinquegrana, to Barron's), net profit near 13 cents (Fortune) or 8 to 10 cents (a competing Bensalem operator, to the Inquirer). DOCUMENTED quotes; figures are estimates, not station invoices.

On that record, industry voices divide. The National Association of Convenience Stores' Jeff Lenard told CNN traditional retailers could not operate that way without at least breaking even on fuel; Kloza told The Hill the prices "do not work in today's market"; GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan said losses imply someone paying for them; a Temple University economist, Josh Mask, called it a loss-leader that could not persist unless market prices fell; and the owner of a competing station, selling 500 fewer gallons a day since the launch, told CNN, "We cannot even compete." DOCUMENTED: CNN, The Hill, Quartz, PhillyVoice, CNN. Against that, Barron's published an analysis in which Cinquegrana, noting the network's prices are not always the area's lowest and citing the regional margin range plus in-store sales, concluded the numbers might plausibly work: "This is a penny business at the end of the day." DOCUMENTED: Barron's. Context cuts both ways: a Costco near the Bristol station was selling at the same $3.479, and GasBuddy listed several regional stations below $3.35, though high-volume national chains achieve those prices through purchasing scale that small independents lack. DOCUMENTED: CNN; PhillyVoice.

The company's own statements, which are interested-party assertions rather than audited findings, claim volume increases above 50 percent, with some sites above 100 percent. DOCUMENTED as claims: company website, via Inquirer.

The observed price movement does not settle the question. Within days, stations began raising prices; Bristol moved from $3.47 to $3.57, one location characterized the original figure as a promotional offer, and tracker data showed network prices at $3.57 or higher by week's end, while wholesale costs rose 14 cents over a similar window. DOCUMENTED: NYT; Moneywise; Nexstar via The Hill; OPIS via ABC. That movement is compatible with at least six distinct arrangements, and it does not discriminate among them:

1. Operator-funded promotion: stations absorbing reduced profit or a loss themselves.
2. Supplier concession: a wholesaler or jobber discounting the acquisition cost.
3. Network reimbursement: the brand entity paying operators per gallon or via a marketing allowance.
4. Outside commercial sponsorship: another business funding the discount for marketing value (a documented industry precedent: last month's T-Mobile and Shell $1.99 promotion in three cities, where the sponsor was named).
5. Political or donor funding: a politically motivated person or entity paying.
6. Government funding: public money or resources, which the White House denies and for which no evidence has surfaced.

The arithmetic, on most published estimates, indicates that someone bears an economic cost. Which of the six arrangements applies is UNRESOLVED, and the documents that would resolve it are specific: station-level fuel invoices, rebate and allowance records, reimbursement agreements, and the terms between the brand entity and each operator.

V. The company and the launch timeline

Three careful readings of that table. First, the registration and formation dates establish that the launch was prepared at least two and a half weeks in advance. They establish planning, not authorship: Squarespace applies domain privacy by default, so the concealed registrant is an effect of the platform, not proof of a concealment strategy, and Delaware's non-disclosure of LLC members is standard. Opacity is documented as an effect; concealment as a motive is not established. DOCUMENTED / INFERENCE separated accordingly.

Second, the trademark filings were made on an intent-to-use basis, meaning the applicant relied on a bona fide intention to use the mark rather than claiming completed use in commerce at filing. The same-day convergence of corporate, branding and communications activity on July 1 shows the launch elements were synchronized. Because the President's July 1 post contained non-public operational specifics before the brand had any public footprint, the record supports the inference that launch details reached the President's communications operation in advance. It does not establish who transmitted them, in which direction the contact ran, or through what intermediary. DOCUMENTED specifics; INFERENCE on information transfer; UNRESOLVED on direction and parties.

Third, the July 9 merchandise filing is a small data point against reading the brand as purely disposable: an entity registering key-chain merchandise rights is behaving, at least on paper, like a brand that intends to persist or license. Alternative explanations, including routine defensive filing by counsel, are equally available. INFERENCE, weak, alternatives stated.

The trademark attorney of record, Anna Vishev of Staten Island, has told news organizations she is not authorized to disclose information beyond the public file. The public trademark record therefore does not resolve beneficial ownership. Follow-up questions for counsel appear in Appendix D. DOCUMENTED statement; UNRESOLVED ownership.

The ownership web

At the center, a brand without a face. Freedom Fuel Network, LLC was formed in Delaware on June 23. No public filing names its members or managers. The dashed amber border is the tier the controller sits in — unresolved.

Operators of record. Field reporting ties Diwan Petrol, KRSM/Riar HR and the Syan entities to stations under the brand — corroborated by the Inquirer and ABC, drawn in accent because corroboration is not a deed.

The professional layer. Anna Vishev is the trademark attorney of record — a documented function. Around it, the reported formation layer: KYW named Yoni Gontownik as the registration's signatory; The Newsground named Randy Brown as the certificate's signatory and PJA Properties LLC as a member, with Gontownik signing for PJA. Two outlets, roles differing, none verified against the certificate — amber leads, not findings.

A supply layer, glimpsed through litigation. Petroleum Marketing Group and the freight companies MR3 Logistics and Orbit Freight Lines appear in unrelated federal litigation involving the Diwan/Kazmi entities. The record cites them for one reason only — as places documents could surface. Capability, not participation; no evidence they supplied these stations.

The White House, on the record. The promotion is documented — the July 1 announcement, the July 7 video. Whether any personnel coordinated or funded the launch is a separate, amber line: unresolved.

The lines that don't resolve. Who funds the discount, and through what mechanism, connect to the center only by amber dashes. That is the whole finding, drawn honestly: the network is real, and its financing is not on the record.

Entities of record · evidence-tier edges · all named in the piece

VI. What the records do not establish

• The beneficial owners, members or managers of Freedom Fuel Network, LLC.
• The financing arrangement, or which of the six cost-bearing structures in Section IV applies.
• Where the concept originated, who first contacted whom, or whether any White House personnel coordinated operational details.
• Any government funding, for which no evidence has surfaced.
• Whether participating operators bore unreimbursed losses, broke even, or profited.
• What legal or contractual interest the White House's "owns all 25" statement described.
• Any legal violation by any named operator or attorney. Participation in a lawful-on-its-face price promotion is not wrongdoing, and prior litigation cited in Appendix F is relevant only as a source of identity and potential documents, not as evidence of conduct here.

VII. Documents that could resolve the remaining questions

Five reporting avenues that may produce additional evidence, ordered by accessibility.

Available to the public now. The USPTO's TSDR system, for the three applications' prosecution histories and eventual statement-of-use deadlines (noting that a lapsed application, alone, would prove little; applications lapse for many reasons). Federal and state campaign-finance databases, searched by operator surnames with employer fields attached, which can reveal political associations but cannot, by themselves, establish that any donor financed this operation. County parcel records, state fuel-license records, and the Pennsylvania and New Jersey corporate registries, including whether any foreign qualification is ever filed. Archived captures of the company's website and dated price observations. Version 5 adds two avenues: corporate-registry lookups, in Delaware, New Jersey and neighboring states, for PJA Properties LLC, the reported member entity (registries may hold multiple unrelated entities of that name; matching requires the underlying documents); and Uniform Commercial Code (UCC-1) financing-statement searches against Freedom Fuel Network, LLC and PJA Properties LLC — if any lender or backer has taken a security interest in the network's assets, the financing statement names the secured party, which would be the first public document to identify who stands financially behind the operation.

Records that could emerge in existing litigation. Some participating operators' affiliated companies are parties to active federal cases predating the launch (Appendix F). Discovery there is controlled by relevance, proportionality, schedules and protective orders; a journalist cannot compel it. The practical route is monitoring the dockets, contacting counsel for all parties, and watching for filed exhibits, declarations or deposition excerpts that touch current supply arrangements.

Records requiring voluntary disclosure. Operator interviews (who approached you, when, on what terms, who sets the posted price, what was your delivered fuel cost); supplier and hauler confirmations; and substantive answers from Freedom Fuel Network and the White House to the written questions in Appendix D.

Records requiring governmental or judicial process. New Jersey has prohibited retail motor-fuel sales below net cost plus selling expenses since 1938 (N.J.S.A. 56:6-2(b)) and has enforced the law within the past decade, when a Speedway station was fined and lost a constitutional challenge. Five network stations operate in New Jersey. Whether a complaint in fact triggers an inspection, and what records an inspection compels, should be confirmed with the responsible county Weights and Measures offices and a New Jersey attorney before relying on it; the statute supplies authority, not an automatic response. Separately, the website platform's account records (holder identity, payment method, edit logs) exist but are obtainable only through valid legal process, not by readers or reporters.

Conclusion

The public record establishes three things: the campaign was planned before its public launch; the White House used official channels to promote it, with the President in possession of operational details in advance; and numerous pre-existing local entities are associated with the stations carrying its name. The available records do not establish a hidden financier, government funding, a single-company ownership structure, or where the idea originated.

The decisive evidence, if it comes, will not be found in patriotic branding, a registered-agent address, or an attorney's biography. It will be found in contracts, fuel invoices, supplier rebates, reimbursement records and communications among the organizers, the station operators and government personnel.

Until those records emerge, the defensible finding is narrower than a proven scheme but more substantial than an unexplained promotion: the White House endorsed, by name and on official channels, a private pricing campaign whose ownership and financing remain undisclosed, whose public description does not neatly correspond with the local operating record, and whose stated economics are disputed by the government's own preferred metric, the price on the sign, which did not hold.

Appendices

Appendix A. Station-by-station evidence matrix

The claim that the network was assembled by selecting contractually unencumbered sites cannot responsibly be made until this table is substantially complete for all 25 locations. Fields and evidence sources, with three partially populated examples:

Examples (partial): 1400 Dreshertown Rd., Upper Dublin Twp., Pa. — former Sunoco (Inquirer); featured in the July 7 White House material. 905 Bristol Pike, Bristol, Pa. — former Valero signage visible under banner (NYT); price observed $3.47 (July 8–9) then $3.57 (July 10, GasBuddy). 1360 Street Rd., Bensalem, Pa. — former Karco; reported ties to Diwan Petrol Inc. (Inquirer); price $3.57 on July 10 (Inquirer).

Appendix B. Hypothesis discrimination table

Appendix C. Identity note and de-confliction

The Karco-branded stations include a North Philadelphia location whose operator, Neil Patel, received national media coverage in December 2022 after hiring armed private security. That episode is background only; it establishes prior media exposure, not any transmission mechanism or role in this launch, and no evidence connects him to the network's organization. De-confliction: this individual is not the Daily Caller co-founder of the same name, nor the internet-marketing figure of the same name; any search combining the name with political or media-finance terms will surface the wrong person almost immediately. Confirm the Philadelphia operator by address and business entity before attributing anything to him. A related correction from the 2022 coverage: an initial report that he owned 22 stations was corrected to a single station; broader Karco brand ownership is unresolved.

Gontownik (formation signatory, per KYW). Public professional profiles matching the reported name describe an energy-trading investment director in New York with a prior listing at Singapore's sovereign wealth fund — consistent with KYW's description, but not verified as the same individual. Before any attribution: obtain the Delaware certificate of formation and confirm the signature; confirm identity through a second independent record; and apply the de-confliction caution above with equal force. Single-source naming is recorded here as a lead, not a finding.

Update, version 5. Two outlets have now published names from the formation records, and they do not describe the same act. KYW (July 10): the Delaware registration was "signed by Yoni Gontownik." The Newsground (July, citing Delaware records): the certificate of formation was signed by Randy Brown, former Evesham Township, N.J. mayor and Baltimore Ravens special-teams coordinator, while Gontownik signed in connection with PJA Properties LLC, described as a member of the network. A Delaware certificate of formation is executed by an "authorized person," who need not be a member; member identities appear, if anywhere, in private documents such as the operating agreement. The two accounts are therefore reconcilable — different documents, different signatures — but neither is verified, and the certificate image (file 10671921) is the arbiter for the first. Identity: professional profiles matching the reported name describe an energy-trading investment director with prior years at Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, consistent with both outlets' descriptions but still not confirmed as the same individual. Associational context, recorded with care: archived captures show the name in host listings on NORPAC event pages in spring 2026 and absent from the same pages by July 11 (see the dated development above); The Newsground reported a NORPAC reference to him was removed after its inquiry. The discriminating test for the removals: compare archived and live versions of NORPAC event pages that do not involve Gontownik across the same window — if host names were removed everywhere, the edits are a site convention; if only here, they were targeted. That test had not been run as of this version. A search of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database returned no registration under the reported names — a null result recorded for completeness. FARA registration is required only of persons acting at the order, request, direction or control of a foreign principal; no such relationship is established, alleged, or implied by this file, and the absence of a registration is what one would expect wherever no such relationship exists. Hosting PAC events and publishing advocacy are lawful civic activities. No allegation of unlawful conduct is made against Gontownik, Brown, or PJA Properties LLC; questions to each are in Appendix D.

Appendix D. Right-of-reply question sets (requires a human reporter; unanswered as of this version)

To Freedom Fuel Network, LLC: Identify the members, managers and beneficial owners. Define the company's legal interest in each of the 25 sites. Provide a station-by-station operator list. Who purchases the fuel, and from which suppliers? Were any reimbursements, rebates, discounts or marketing allowances provided to operators? Who selected the $3.47 figure? Identify all contacts with the White House or presidential advisers before July 1. What are the network's intended duration and expansion plans? Substantiate the claimed volume increases.

To the White House: What evidence supported the statement that one company owns all 25 locations, and what definition of "owns" was used? What basis supported the statement that no entity or person is subsidizing the price? Who first informed the President of the launch, and when? When did any White House personnel first communicate with the company or participating operators? Who proposed, produced and approved the July 7 video, and were any government resources used? Was an ethics review conducted?

To each station operator (separately): Who approached you, and when? What agreement did you sign? Who controls the posted price? Did you receive money, fuel discounts, rebates, signage or services? What was your delivered fuel cost during the promotion? Did any prior supply agreement bear on the rebranding? For how long were you obligated to hold the price?

To suppliers, haulers and prior brands: Did you supply these locations during the period? Did pricing include promotional concessions? When did prior branded relationships end?

To counsel of record: Who instructed the filing, and which person or entity paid the invoice? Were instructions received directly from a member or manager of the LLC? Will questions be forwarded to the client? Is the representation limited to trademark matters?

To Randy Brown: Did you sign Freedom Fuel Network, LLC's certificate of formation, and in what capacity — member, manager, or authorized person? Who asked you to sign, and when? What is your role, if any, in the network's operations or financing? To PJA Properties LLC: Are you a member of Freedom Fuel Network, LLC, and since when? Who are PJA's own members and beneficial owners? Did PJA or its principals fund, reimburse or guarantee any part of the discount? To Yoni Gontownik: Did you sign any Freedom Fuel Network document, and which — the registration, a member consent, or papers for PJA Properties LLC? What is your role in the network? Did you or any entity you advise contribute funding? Were references to you removed from third-party websites at your request? To NORPAC: Who edited the Mark Green and Josh Hawley event pages between the April and July captures, and why? Is de-naming event hosts a site-wide convention or specific to these pages?

Response table (template):

No outreach performed as of version 5. This ledger is completed by a human reporter before publication; empty status is a disclosure, not an omission. Subjects added in v5 — Brown, PJA Properties LLC, Gontownik (expanded), NORPAC — join the ledger unattempted.

Appendix E. Technical and methodology notes

Domain. WHOIS/RDAP: created June 13, 2026; registrar Squarespace Domains LLC; registrant redacted by privacy service (contact state: New Jersey); nameservers squarespacedns.com; A record in an AWS range consistent with Squarespace hosting. Squarespace applies WHOIS privacy by default to eligible domains; the redaction therefore prevents attribution but is not, by itself, evidence of a concealment strategy.

Site artifacts. The locations page is a static file named siteLocationsV7.html. The filename is preserved here as an artifact; no interpretation about revision counts, approvals or workflow is drawn from it.

Comparative check. No distinctive hosting or code signature was found linking the site to the administration's known web infrastructure. (Null result; methodology available: DNS records, hosting observations, archived source, retrieval dates.)

Trademark records. Serials 99917809 and 99917821 (filed July 1, intent-to-use) and 99931369 (filed July 9, key chains), all owned by Freedom Fuel Network, LLC, attorney of record Anna Vishev. Third-party aggregators disagree on the classification of 99917821 (one lists a services class, another a construction/repair class); classifications should be confirmed directly in USPTO TSDR before publication.

Corporate records. Delaware formation June 23, 2026; file number 10671921; registered agent The Corporation Trust Company, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington (state registry search, retrieved July 13–14; the filing discloses no members or managers, which is standard). The registered-agent address is shared by an enormous number of unrelated entities and carries no attributive weight. The certificate image — the document that would show signatures — is obtainable by paid order from the Division of Corporations and had not been obtained as of this version.

Archiving. Preserve dated captures of the company site (each version), RDAP output, TSDR histories, corporate search results, parcel records, price photographs with metadata, court documents and official posts; record retrieval dates and, where practical, hashes.

Appendix F. Litigation records as potential document sources

These records are cited solely because they (a) identify operators and affiliated entities and (b) constitute existing venues where relevant documents could lawfully surface. They are not evidence of any conduct related to this launch, and the underlying claims are allegations unless otherwise noted.

• Diwan Petrol / Kazmi-affiliated entities. A 2021 trademark dispute with BP concluded with court-ordered signage removal executed by U.S. Marshals in June 2022 (court documents via the Inquirer). Separately, Petroleum Marketing Group, Inc., a fuel distributor, is in federal litigation with affiliated entities and individuals: E.D. Pa. (filed October 2021) and D.N.J. 3:22-cv-02410 (docket activity into February 2026), with defendants including two freight companies, MR3 Logistics LLC and Orbit Freight Lines LLC; and D.N.J. 3:23-cv-22418 (filed November 2023), a complaint categorized as fraud. Defendant entities have counterclaimed. Exact docket numbers should be re-pulled from PACER before publication. Relevance: party identification; the existence of freight affiliates (capability only; no evidence they supplied these stations); and active discovery as a potential document source.
• KRSM Inc. / Riar HR LLC. May 2026 judgment ($20,000) and Phillips 66 signage-removal order concerning a Nicetown, Philadelphia site (Inquirer). Relevance: contractual and branding status of a participating site shortly before launch.
• Syan I Inc. / Syan Investment LLC / Fernwood Realty Co. Operating entities for five sites (Inquirer); only prior press is a 2021 fuel-delivery spill. No further connective record found (null).

Appendix G. Source register and change log

Primary records: WHOIS/RDAP (retrieved July 11); USPTO via Justia/Trademarkia/TrademarkElite (retrieved July 11); Delaware formation as reported by CBS/CNN; N.J.S.A. 56:6-2 (Justia statute text); federal dockets via UniCourt/Justia/GovInfo (retrieved July 11). Reporting relied upon: Philadelphia Inquirer (July 7 and July 10); ABC News; CNN; TIME; CBS; NOTUS; The Hill; Fortune; Barron's (via MSN syndication); Quartz; PhillyVoice; Snopes; NYT (July 11 print). Additional for v3: KYW Newsradio/Audacy (July 10); Philadelphia Inquirer (July 11 and July 13); USA Today (July 9); CBS 21 Harrisburg (July 9); Fox56 (July 8); company website capture (July 13). Additional for v5: The Newsground (retrieved July 14); Delaware Division of Corporations entity search, file 10671921 (retrieved July 13–14); archived norpac.net event-page captures of April 14 and July 11, 2026 (on file); FARA database search (null result, July 13).

Change log, v1 → v2 (July 11), following external editorial review: - Headline and framing changed from conclusion-presuming to question-driven. - Evidence taxonomy rebuilt to DOCUMENTED / CORROBORATED / INFERENCE / UNRESOLVED, applied per proposition; the internally contradictory label "confirmed by inference" removed. - "Shell company," "built for anonymity" and related concealment-motive language removed; Squarespace default-privacy caveat added; opacity reframed as effect, not established motive. - Interpretive weight removed from the siteLocationsV7.html filename; retained as artifact only. - "Owns all 25" treated as a discrepancy pending definition, with the ownership-layer decomposition added, rather than as conclusively disproved. - Intent-to-use analysis corrected; "before it legally existed" formulation removed. - Attorney section reduced to documented function; speculative characterizations removed. - Economics rebuilt as a contested range; categorical "arithmetically impossible" and "falsifies" language removed; Barron's counter-analysis, Costco price parity, sub-$3.35 regional stations, and the six-arrangement cost-bearing taxonomy added; "a reduced margin can be sustained indefinitely" deleted. - Video-production foreknowledge inference removed (the July 1 post carries that weight); production questions moved to Appendix D. - Recruitment-filter claim recast as hypothesis requiring the Appendix A matrix; "contractual orphans" phrasing retired. - Operator litigation moved to Appendix F as document-source material; motive speculation about financially stressed operators deleted. - Patel material demoted to an identity/de-confliction appendix; "pathway" mechanism claim withdrawn. - Replication guide renamed and tiered by accessibility; NJ enforcement, discovery and platform-records claims corrected; "five ways of answering itself" softened to reporting avenues. - Right-of-reply question sets and response table added; ethics analysis narrowed pending expert interviews (5 C.F.R. Part 2635 definitional scope noted for a future draft); interpretive material moved to a separately labeled analysis companion. - New verified records incorporated: Barron's analysis; July 9 trademark filing (99931369, key chains); White House "will fluctuate" statement; named spokesperson; Costco/GasBuddy price context.

Change log, v2 → v3 (July 13): - Added "Developments since version 2" with dated, tiered entries; records-checked date advanced to 2026-07-13. - Formation-signatory reporting (KYW Newsradio, July 10) incorporated with an explicit single-source caveat; identity caution added to Appendix C; the certificate of formation flagged as the primary document to obtain. - Price record extended through July 13: multi-site $3.57 (July 8–10), one site at $3.89 (July 8), South Jersey discount of 40–50 cents persisting (July 13). - Camp Hill (Harrisburg-area) site noted; unattributed expansion claim recorded as claim only. - Company-site statement (July 13 capture) added as self-published claims. - Congressional criticism of July 11 recorded; no formal process opened. - Minor copyedit in Section IV ("500 gallons a day poorer" clarified). - No changes to the findings in Sections I–VII, the evidence standard, or the headline conclusions.

Change log, v3 → v4 (July 14): - Added two interactive evidence scenes: "The network, mapped" (section III) and "The ownership web" (section V). Every pin, node, edge and step restates evidence already present in the text and appendices under the same estimative labels; the scenes introduce no new claims and omit none of the underlying record. In modes without motion or scripting, each scene renders as its complete final figure with the step text as prose. - Recorded the Camp Hill station's published street address, 3811 Hartzdale Drive (WFMZ/Fox56 station lists, July 8), and moved the map pin to the address location. - July 14 records review: no other substantive public-record developments identified.

Change log, v4 → v5 (July 14): - Consolidated formation-record reporting: The Newsground's account (Randy Brown as certificate signatory; PJA Properties LLC as reported member; Gontownik signing in connection with PJA) added alongside KYW's, with the role discrepancy stated and the certificate flagged as the arbiter. - Delaware registry search recorded as a primary record (file 10671921); certificate image noted as obtainable but not yet obtained. - NORPAC event-page edit record added as a dated development, with alternatives and a discriminating test stated; FARA null result recorded with its scope explained. - Appendix C identity note expanded; Appendix D question sets added for Brown, PJA Properties, Gontownik (expanded) and NORPAC; response ledger updated to v5. - Public-records avenues extended with PJA registry lookups and UCC-1 financing-statement searches. - Ownership-web scene: PJA Properties and Randy Brown added as single-source lead nodes, the professional-layer step expanded, and the Gontownik node re-captioned "named by two outlets · roles differ." - No changes to the findings of Sections I–IV and VI–VII; the headline conclusion is unchanged. - Post-v5 copyedit (July 14): the network's name is now introduced in the standfirst and at first body reference; no substantive changes.