FBI looking for Christopher Burns, accused of committing mail fraud

Officials from the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia are looking for a Berkeley Lake man who is believed to have allegedly defrauded customers of his financial adviser businesses out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and who disappeared one day before he was supposed to turn over business documents to federal officials last month.

There is a warrant for the arrest of Christopher W. Burns, 37, for mail fraud and he is also under investigation by the IRS, according to the FBI. The financial advisor was supposed to hand over documents related to his businesses to the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, but left his house one day earlier, on Sept. 24, and has not been seen since then.

His vehicle was found abandoned in Dunwoody with copies of three cashiers checks totaling more than $78,000 in the car.

"The FBI is also asking anyone who has done business with Burns, and feels that they may be victims, to report it to the FBI," officials at the federal agency said on Monday.

Burns allegedly operated trough several businesses including Investus Advisers LLC, Investus Financial LLC, Dynamic Money and Peer Connect LLC. A warrant affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Stephen R. Ryskoski states Burns allegedly offered "his friends, family and clients" a chance to make investments in a "peer-to-peer" lending program.

The program was supposed to provide "attractive returns in short periods of time via promissory notes" issued to the investors.

"In reality, the collateral promised by Burns either did not exist at all or was worth substantially less than Burns represented. Moreover, Burns is aware that he is under SEC investigation," Ryskoski said in the affidavit. "Burns was scheduled to produce documents to the SEC on September 25, 2020. Notably, he failed complete his production of the documents to the SEC and his whereabouts have been unknown since the evening of September 24, 2020."

The loans were to be made to businesses that needed financing, and there was supposed to be "little to no risk." The promissory notes showed the amount of the investor's loan, the promised rate of return, the dates on which interest was to be paid and the maturity date for the loans.

"Many promissory notes also identified specific collateral that secured the loan to reduce the level of risk associated with the investment and to induce investors to participate in the lending program," the affidavit states.

The affidavit references one north Georgia couple who agreed to invest $365,000 in the program after Burns contacted them and told them he had an opening after another investor left the program. The couple was allegedly told their investment was to be " collateralized dollar for dollar by investment securities put up by the business borrowing funds through the lending program."