Advisor Hunted by FBI Is Ordered to Pay $12M
Advisor Christopher Burns disappeared in 2020 after allegedly scamming about 100 investors.
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)