ATLANTA — The FBI is stepping up its actions to try to find a former metro Atlanta financial adviser, Christopher Burns.
Burns is wanted in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud customers out of millions of dollars.
Burns is said to have “used investors’ money to repay prior investors and to fund his business and his lavish lifestyle. Burns is alleged to have defrauded dozens of victims of at least $10 million,” according to an indictment handed up against him in April 2023.
Burns has been the center of a Channel 2 Action News investigation since his disappearance in 2020.
Now the FBI has added him to their “Most Wanted Fraudsters” list and is offering a $150,000 reward for information that may lead to his arrest.
According to a lawsuit filed against Burns by the Securities and Exchange Commission, he sold fraudulent promissory notes for years to more than 90 investors in Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida.
Burns disappeared in September 2020, just one day before an SEC deadline to hand over paperwork in an undisclosed investigation. He hasn’t been seen since.
“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,” former U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a news release at the time.
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“He betrayed investors and stole their savings with promises of safe investments that would yield high rates of return. Individuals who brazenly cheat their clients should expect to be held accountable,” Buchanan said.
A federal grand jury indicted Burns in 2023, charging him with 10 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, and four counts of money laundering.
He had already been charged with one count of mail fraud in a previous federal complaint.
Burns’ ex-wife, Meredith Burns, told Channel 2 Action News 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,” she said.
On the day before he left, Meredith said Chris did a lot of paperwork. He transferred assets to her and had her sign some things.
“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 said no one would take her seriously in those first couple of days.
At one point, Burns had a show on WSB Radio. He was not an employee of the radio station but bought the airtime himself.
Burns 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.
Anyone with information on Burns’ whereabouts is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or submit a tip with them at tips.fbi.gov.
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