Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor
Christopher W. Burns. (Photo via FBI)

Regulation and Compliance > Litigation

Advisor Hunted by FBI Is Ordered to Pay $12M

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

What You Need to Know

  • Advisor Christopher Burns disappeared in 2020 after allegedly scamming about 100 investors as part of a Ponzi scheme involving illegal promissory notes.
  • If he is ever found, Christopher Burns is also liable for a civil penalty of $652,629.
  • Burns’ ex-wife called on him in March 2021 to give himself up.

A financial advisor who’s been missing for nearly two years and was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list has been ordered to pay $12 million to his victims in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A federal court has entered a default judgment in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Christopher Burns and his companies: Investus Advisers LLC, which did business as Dynamic Money; Investus Financial LLC; and Peer Connect LLC.

“They must pay more than $12 million, Judge William M. Ray II recently ruled,” according to the paper. Burns, if he is ever found, is also liable for a civil penalty of $652,629, the Journal wrote.

Burns was last seen on Sept. 24, 2020, one day before he was supposed to turn over documents to the SEC, according to the FBI.

Burns’ ex-wife of called on him last March to give himself up.

The Atlanta-area advisor has been hunted by the FBI for allegedly scamming about 100 investors as part of a Ponzi scheme involving illegal promissory notes.

In an interview in March 2021 with a WSB TV reporter in Georgia, Meredith Burns, the former wife of Burns, called on her ex-husband to “turn yourself in,” saying “it’s time.” She also told the reporter she had “no idea who I was living with” and “had no clue” that he was planning to divorce her and leave.

It’s unclear, though, how much, if anything, Burns’ victims will ever see, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

“Federal court documents indicate that there was some money in various bank accounts for his businesses, frozen by court order after his disappearance. And Burns’ ex-wife previously agreed to disgorge $320,000 in funds he had transferred to her,” the paper reported.

“But federal officials say most of the investors’ money was spent to fund Burns’ lifestyle, pay business expenses and repay earlier investors, to create the appearance that investments he sold were profitable,” the paper said.

Still pending against Burns is a federal criminal complaint, charging him with mail fraud, the paper said. “There’s been no action in that case since Oct. 23, 2020, when it was filed.”

Pictured: Christopher Burns. (Photo via FBI)


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.