SCOTTSBLUFF — Documents filed in Scotts Bluff County Court provide more details in the Nebraska State Patrol's investigation of a Scottsbluff business owner accused of bootlegging.
Kuldip Singh, 59, has been charged in Scotts Bluff County Court with 10 counts of transporting liquor into the state, five counts of evading or attempt to evade the liquor tax and five counts of acquiring liquor from someone other than a licensed dealer, all misdemeanors.
According to a search warrant affidavit, the State Patrol received a complaint from the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission on April 30, 2019, after a wine and spirits wholesaler in Omaha reported that its employees had been kicked out of Cheema’s Gas & Liquor store in Scottsbluff. The representative had noticed that a Captain Morgan product had been on Singh’s shelves and he had not ordered the product from the company in a couple of years. The representative believed he had gotten the product from another store, possibly from a store he owned in Torrington, Wyoming.
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The State Patrol observed the business for a year beginning in June 2019, reportedly observing deliveries of alcohol bottles transported in a vehicle owned by Singh.
In January 2020, the Scottsbluff Police Department also received a Crime Stoppers tip in which a former employee alleged that over a two-year period, Singh had funneled quantities of alcohol through his Wyoming store because the cost was cheaper than in Nebraska. The employee alleged that the liquor was being sold at stores owned by Singh in Scottsbluff and Bridgeport.
An investigator acquired records from the state of Wyoming, which serves as the wholesaler of all liquor, wine and spirits in that state. The investigator found that Singh had ordered more than $289,000 in liquor in 2019, which the investigator said was excessive based on the population of Torrington.