Feds indict former Nebraska Liquor Control Commission director on fraud, extortion charges

A federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday alleges that the former top executive at Nebraska’s Liquor Control Commission accepted cash, VIP dances and sex acts from two Lincoln strip clubs in exchange for preferential treatment.

Hobert Rupe, who served as the commission’s executive director from 2004 until his suspension and resignation earlier this year, was taken into federal custody on Wednesday morning. He faces charges of honest services fraud, wire fraud, and extortion by a public official.

The indictment alleges that Rupe protected two Lincoln strip clubs, The Office Gentleman’s Club and The Night Before Lounge, from law enforcement investigation in exchange for free drinks, dances and sex acts. It further alleges that he targeted investigations at the club’s business competitors and, in one case, extorted a separate unnamed business out of $65,000.

The partial owner of the two clubs, Brent Zywiec, is also named in the indictment. He faces three counts of honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. Attorneys for Zywiec and Rupe did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The indictment reads, in part: “[Rupe] was provided personal and financial benefits, to include sexual acts performed on him by employees of the strip clubs, cash, free alcoholic beverages, free cover charges for his entry into The Office and The Night Before clubs on various occasions, free dances, and other items of value, through a stream of benefits from [Zywiec] and other co-conspirators known to the grand jury, in exchange for official actions and inactions taken by Nebraska Liquor Control Commissioner [Rupe].”

Multiple videos of Rupe from the club’s security cameras are mentioned in the indictment. In one, he is allegedly seen taking a bundle of cash from Zywiec underneath a table before using the cash to pay for a private dance. In another, prosecutors allege Rupe can be seen receiving oral sex from a dancer at the club while in a VIP room.

Employees of the club were alleged to have regularly taken cash out of the business safe to provide to Rupe. To keep track of the amount taken from the safe, according to the indictment, employees would write “COB” – Cost Of Business – and a dollar amount on a sticky note.

“This was how another owner known to the grand jury would keep track of the cash at The Office that was expensed by the business to influence [Rupe] over time in the performance of his official duties,” the indictment said.

At a press conference, FBI Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said the investigation into Rupe has been ongoing for about a year, and the indictment includes text messages dating back to 2022. Those texts include multiple explicit text messages between Rupe and Zywiec where Rupe allegedly asks Zywiec about the “girls” available at his clubs.

In one message exchange from Nov. 29, 2023, Rupe allegedly told Zywiec that he wanted to “chat up” one of the dancers before being told she didn’t speak English.

“She’s wasted,” Zywiec texted Rupe, according to the indictment.

“If I had more time I would have tried to see how poor her decision skills were affected,” Rupe replied, along with a grinning face emoji.

In another conversation from Aug. 12, 2023, a co-conspirator, who isn’t named in the indictment, alerted Zywiec that Rupe was at the club. The messages show that the co-conspirator gave one of the dancers $100 and she “took Hobie to vip.”

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” Zywiec allegedly said to the co-conspirator.

The indictment also alleges that Rupe repeatedly contacted the Nebraska Attorney General's Office to direct investigations at competing clubs in the area. In March of this year, a call was “intercepted” between Rupe and an assistant attorney general in which Rupe “encouraged additional conversations with law enforcement to focus investigations” into two competing clubs.

Rupe and Zyweic will make their first appearances in court virtually on Thursday. Rupe is being held at the Saunders County Jail, while Zyweic is being held at the Saline County Jail.