Georgia investment adviser on the run for years ordered to pay $12M

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. – A monetary adviser who’s been on the run for almost two years has been ordered to pay $12 million to his victims in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.

The default judgment was lately entered in a lawsuit introduced by the federal Securities and Change Fee towards Christopher Burns and his firms: Investus Advisers LLC, which did enterprise as Dynamic Cash; Investus Monetary LLC and Peer Join LLC. And Burns, if he’s ever discovered, can be answerable for a civil penalty of $652,629.

Nonetheless, it stays unclear if Burns’ victims will each see any cash.

The once-prominent funding adviser is on the FBI’s Most Wished record, accused of bilking his shoppers out of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. The day he vanished — Sept. 25, 2020 — was the day he was supposed to show over paperwork about his dealings to SEC regulators.

Federal court docket paperwork point out there was some cash in varied financial institution accounts for his companies, frozen by court docket order after his disappearance. And Burns’ ex-wife agreed to return $320,000 in funds he had transferred to her.

FORMER WIFE OF GWINNETT COUNTY MAN WANTED TO FBI SPEAKS OUT

However federal officers say many of the buyers’ cash was spent to finance Burns’ way of life, cowl enterprise bills and repay earlier buyers, to create the looks that investments he offered had been worthwhile.

Burns had a excessive profile within the Atlanta metro space. He had a weekly radio program, the Chris Burns Present, and appeared on TV providing monetary recommendation. However the SEC’s swimsuit mentioned for years Burns offered fraudulent promissory notes to greater than 90 buyers in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.

The notes, he claimed, had been for a “peer to look” lending program, the place companies in want of capital would borrow cash. In return, Burns informed buyers that companies would repay the principal, plus curiosity as excessive as 20%. He additionally informed shoppers the funding had little or no threat as a result of the loans had been collateralized greenback for greenback by funding securities put up by the companies.

Federal officers mentioned the lending program was a rip-off.

Nonetheless pending towards Burns is a federal legal criticism, charging him with mail fraud. There’s been no motion in that case since Oct. 23, 2020, when it was filed.

Burns has brown eyes and brown hair, weighs 240 kilos and is 6’2″. He has a tattoo on his left forearm of three black triangles interlaced

In case you have any data on the place Chris Burns is, please contact the FBI’s Atlanta Subject Workplace at (770) 216-3000. You may also contact your native FBI workplace or submit a tip at suggestions.fbi.gov.

The Related Press contributed to this report.