Editors Note – Kuldip “Cheema” Singh’s multiple business operations at one time included Cheema’s in Chadron, but that store was sold two years ago and is in an extended process of changing its name.
A Scotts Bluff County jury has convicted the owner of the Cheema’s and Thrifty’s gas station-convenience store-liquor store chains of what are essentially bootlegging charges involving his Scottsbluff store.
59-year-old Kuldip “Cheema” Singh was found Guilty on four counts each of evading or attempting to evade liquor tax and acquiring liquor from other than a licensed dealer.
He was found Not Guilty on 8 misdemeanor charges of Transporting Liquor into the State and Transporting Liquor With no Tax.
Singh faces up to 2 years in prison and $6,000 in fines when he’s sentenced July 7th, and will likely also be hit by sanctions from the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission.
Singh was charged last October after Nebraska State Patrol investigators located 36 marked bottles of liquor in the Scottsbluff store that had apparently been purchased in Wyoming.
Singh’s multiple business operations at one time included Cheema’s in Chadron, but that store was sold two years ago and is in an extended process of changing its name.