Former Owner of Trailblazers, Inc. Sentenced to 18 Months for Bankruptcy Fraud

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Barry E. Sanders, 64, the former owner and CEO of Trailblazers, Inc., an auto and truck parts supply business formerly located in Lexington, was sentenced today, by Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood, to 18 months imprisonment for bankruptcy fraud. 

Sanders had previously admitted in U.S. District Court that, while Trailblazers, Inc. was in the process of contemplating bankruptcy in the summer of 2013, he transferred $315,000 from the business to his personal banking accounts, using four cashier’s checks.  Sanders then knowingly concealed the receipt of those funds, by failing to report the cash transfers on Trailblazers’ corporate bankruptcy filings in August 2013, as required by federal bankruptcy law. 

Under federal law, Sanders must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence.  Sanders will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years, following his release.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and James Robert Brown, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, jointly announced the sentence. 

The investigation leading to Sanders’ conviction was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erin Roth and Will Moynahan. 

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