Advisor Hunted by FBI Is Ordered to Pay $12M

Christopher W. Burns. (Photo via FBI)

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.

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