The man who once ran Nebraska's liquor enforcement office has admitted to taking cash, free drinks and sexual acts from strip club operators in exchange for steering state investigators away from their businesses and toward their competitors. Hobert Rupe, the former executive director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, pleaded guilty in federal court to honest-services-fraud conspiracy and Hobbs Act extortion under color of official right.
Rupe had initially pleaded not guilty to all charges after being indicted alongside club co-owner Brent Zywiec, according to WOWT. As part of the plea agreement, the remaining seven counts of the superseding indictment will be dismissed, according to Courthouse News. He now faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.
Prosecutors allege Rupe worked to “effectively insulate” Zywiec's two Lincoln strip clubs from law enforcement while directing state investigators toward Zywiec's competitors in Omaha, the same report states. In return, he was allegedly showered with personal and financial benefits, including sexual acts performed on him by strip club employees, cash, free alcoholic beverages, waived cover charges, free dances and other items of value, per the outlet's reporting on the indictment's language.
A $65,000 Arrangement Caught on Camera
According to the Courthouse News account, Zywiec paid Rupe roughly $65,000 between 2021 and 2025. Investigators reportedly obtained 2024 surveillance footage showing Zywiec handing Rupe a bundle of cash under a table, a detail at the center of the government's case. WOWT reported that authorities also found video of Rupe receiving a bundle of cash from a co-owner under the table at the business office, and that he received a paid private dance minutes afterward.
WOWT's reporting adds that co-defendants provided Rupe with cash, private and VIP dances, and waived cover charges and alcoholic beverages either for free or paid for with that cash. Investigators determined the business had expensed cash over time specifically to influence Rupe, the station reported. Co-defendants allegedly also supplied dancer information that Rupe then ran through criminal-justice and law-enforcement databases, using those searches both to protect the clubs from scrutiny and to direct allegations toward competing bars through referrals to the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, per the same report.
Undercover Operations and an Alleged Payoff at a Gas Station
While Rupe allegedly shielded Zywiec's clubs, the Nebraska Attorney General's Office and Nebraska State Patrol carried out undercover investigations at competitor clubs, according to WOWT's account. The station's report also details the experience of an Omaha lounge owner who told law enforcement he paid $40,000 in 2021 to maintain his liquor license at Throwback Lounge. That owner said a co-defendant offered to help him because of a contact at the Liquor Control Commission, and that he was told he'd receive an anonymous call before his first commission hearing along with coaching on how to conduct himself.
The lounge owner said he was instructed to bring $40,000 in cash to a gas station along Interstate 80 between Omaha and Lincoln, and authorities said some of that payment went to Rupe and a co-defendant. The liquor control commissioner reportedly stopped giving the owner trouble after the payment, until 2023. That year, the Omaha City Council denied the owner's liquor-license request, prompting an appeal to the state commission; the owner paid $25,000 of a requested additional $40,000, per WOWT's reporting. The liquor board ultimately modified the lounge's closing time from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m., and Throwback Lounge closed after that hearing.
A Case That Grew Over Months
Rupe held the executive director role from 2003 until resigning in June 2025, according to WOWT, though sourcing on the exact start date varies: Courthouse News reports he served from 2004 until his June 2025 resignation, while 1011 Now reports he was appointed in December 2003 and began his duties on January 15, 2004. The Nebraska Liquor Commission voted unanimously in May 2025 to suspend Rupe without pay after a federal search warrant was served, Courthouse News reported.
A grand jury indicted Rupe and Brent Zywiec in September 2025, and 1011 Now reported the pair were charged as co-conspirators in an 11-count federal indictment. Two more defendants, Shane Zywiec and Dan Thomas, were indicted the following November, bringing the total number of people accused in the fraud and extortion investigation to four, according to KETV. A superseding indictment filed Nov. 18 named Dan Thomas as a partial owner of The Office Gentleman's Club and The Night Before Lounge alongside Brent Zywiec, the station reported.
Brent Zywiec was charged with three counts of services fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit services fraud, and he had pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to WOWT. Rupe himself was initially charged with one count of extortion, two counts of wire fraud, three counts of services fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit services fraud, facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts. WOWT also reported that several co-defendants owned bars including The Office, where a double homicide occurred in May 2024.
What Happens Next
In court, Magistrate Judge Jacqueline M. DeLuca said she would recommend that Judge Susan Bazis accept the plea agreement at or before sentencing, according to WOWT's report from the Lancaster County courtroom. Rupe is scheduled for sentencing on February 4. WOWT's reporting also states that Rupe witnessed, knew of and participated in some illegal club activities that went unreported to law enforcement, and that prosecutors allege Zywiec committed liquor-licensing violations with the influence Rupe wielded on his behalf, according to court records cited in that report.
