Thomas Abernathy

Personal Information

Thomas (TJ) Abernathy III is the Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and Sales for Asset Reality, a fin-tech organization responsible for developing the world’s first end-to-end solution for asset recovery, from training to investigating crypto fraud to managing and realizing seized digital assets. A retired Assistant Chief Inspector, United States Marshals Service (USMS), TJ brings more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement, specializing in international forfeitures having worked on the largest asset recovery cases in the world such as 1MDB and Russian Oligarchs. Through his work, he has trained agencies all over the world helping several foreign government agencies develop new asset forfeiture and confiscation procedures and supported numerous others in navigating complex international asset recovery and realization. A consultant for the UNODC since 2014 as well as The World Bank,  TJ represented the United States in the Camden Asset Recovery Informal Network (CARIN) from 2012 to his retirement from the USMS in July 2022, and has been credited with the creation of the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network for the Caribbean (ARIN-CARIB).  TJ also co-authored the World Bank Managing Seized and Confiscated Assets:  A Guide for Practitioners, which was published in December of 2023.