Companies owned by fugitive investment advisor must pay $12M, court says

ATLANTA — A federal court says the companies owned by a local investment advisor, who disappeared without a trace nearly two years ago, now have to pay $12 million to his clients.

Christopher Burns disappeared in September 2020 after bilking his clients out of millions of dollars.

According to the SEC’s suit, he sold fraudulent promissory notes for years to more than 90 investors in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.

The judge also ruled that if Burns is ever found, he is liable for a civil penalty of more than $652,000. But federal authorities say it is unclear if investors will ever see the money.

Most of the missing money was spent to fund Burns’ lifestyle and to create the appearance that the investments he sold were profitable.

Burns’ ex-wife, Meredith Burns, told Channel 2′s Tony Thomas in a 2021 interview that she was as confused and hurt as anyone about what her ex-husband allegedly did.

“I have no idea who I was living with,” Meredith Burns said.

On the day before he left, Meredith says Chris did a lot of paperwork. He transferred assets to her and had her sign some things.

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“Later on, I would find out that was divorce paperwork. But I didn’t know it that day,” she said.

Then, her husband stopped by their kids’ school and supposedly took off for North Carolina. His family received routine texts from him that night. Meredith realized the Carolina story was a lie the next morning.

“And so at that point, I just, I remember just kind of like just crumbling in the driveway. Because I just knew something was really, really, really off. And so I called the police,” she said.

But Meredith says no one would take her seriously in those first couple of days.

So she tracked his vehicle down through GPS to a perimeter area parking garage.

“I remember driving in thinking, ‘Am I going to find a dead body?’” she said.

Meredith Burns says she found a few receipts for certified checks and her husband’s hat, but not her husband.

“Do you still believe he is alive today?” Thomas asked FBI Special Agent Steve Ryskoski.

“Yes,” Ryskoski responded.

At one point, Burns had a show on WSB Radio. He was not an employee of the radio station but bought the airtime himself.

The SEC declined to comment. Attorneys representing investors in a separate lawsuit did not respond to a request for comment.

A federal criminal complaint is still pending against Burns, charging him with mail fraud. There has been no action in that case since Oct. 23, 2020, when the complaint was filed.

Burns is 39 years old. The FBI notes that he has a tattoo on his left forearm of three black, interlaced triangles. He is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, and weighed about 240 pounds when he was last seen.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this article.

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