Advisor Hunted by FBI Indicted Over $10M Fraud Scheme

What You Need to Know

An advisor who went missing in 2020 after allegedly scamming about 100 investors as part of a Ponzi scheme has now been indicted by the Justice Department.
He was charged with 10 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and four counts of money laundering.
The former advisor is still being sought by the FBI.

The Atlanta-area advisor who went missing in 2020 after allegedly scamming about 100 investors as part of a Ponzi scheme involving the sale of illegal promissory notes has now been indicted by the Justice Department.

In an indictment filed Tuesday in U.S District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, a federal grand jury charged Christopher Burns, 40, of Berkeley Lake, Georgia, with 10 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and four counts of money laundering.

Burns was previously charged in a criminal complaint on Oct. 23, 2020, with one count of mail fraud. He is also under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.

But he has not been seen since he left his home on Sept. 24, 2020 — one day before he was scheduled to relinquish documents related to his businesses to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The vehicle he was driving was found abandoned in Dunwoody, Georgia. Inside the vehicle were copies of three cashier’s checks totaling more than $78,000.

In 2021, Meredith Burns, his ex-wife, called on him to give himself up.

Authorities Seek Help

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia requested Wednesday that anyone with information about Burns’ location — or who thought they had been defrauded by him — to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Atlanta field office at 770-216-3000 or via the FBI’s website for tips.

According to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan, the indictment and other information presented in court, Burns conducted business through several entities — including Investus Advisers, Investus Financial, Dynamic Money and Peer Connect.