New Appointment Announcement - Chief Operations Officer (Public Sector)

We are delighted to announce that Thomas J. Abernathy will be joining the Asset Reality team as our Public Sector Chief Operations Officer.

TJ is more than experienced in international asset recovery, international forfeiture, and asset forfeiture management. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Legal Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he went on to obtain a Financial Crimes Investigation Certification from Utica College before embarking on a lengthy career in executive law enforcement for more than 25 years.

In 2013, TJ was appointed as Assistant Chief Inspector International Unit for the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the United States Marshals Service (USMS). In this role, he was the primary subject matter expert on international forfeiture for the DOJ, conducted Asset Forfeiture Program assessments in a number of foreign countries and helped several foreign government agencies to develop new asset forfeiture and confiscation procedures.

In his previous role as Head of International Assets at the USMS, TJ personally created and evolved its policies for managing seized assets across international borders. Together with the USMS Asset Forfeiture Financial Investigators and legal professionals from the United States Attorney’s Office, he coordinated countless investigations that resulted in the recovery of high-profile assets over international borders in the Isle of Man, Ireland, Romania, Malta, the US, the UK and Indonesia. He was instrumental in recovering a collection of luxury assets from the infamous Malaysian businessman Jho Low as part of the notorious 1MDB scandal.‍

Throughout his career, TJ has been keen to share his knowledge of financial investigations and asset forfeiture with both the international community and the next generation of law enforcement. He has spent time instructing on the newest investigation, management and recovery techniques for the DOJ as well as hosting foreign delegations of law enforcement and judicial professionals to discuss collaboration efforts on asset forfeiture and asset management training programs.

Since 2012, TJ has represented the United States in the Camden Asset Recovery Informal Network (CARIN), an international steering group focused on developing best practices for asset recovery around the world. He has even been credited with the creation of the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network for the Caribbean (ARIN-CARIB).

As crypto-related frauds continue to be a growing danger to consumers, TJ is keen to stress his focus on the victims affected by these scams:

“I am not a fan of fraudsters and criminals who steal other people’s hard-earned money and use it to treat themselves to an undeserved lavish lifestyle. I’m more than happy to be helping to assist the victims of crypto-related crime through my new position at Asset Reality.”

Asset Reality’s Co-Founder and CEO, Aidan Larkin, is thrilled to be working with TJ:

“Easily one of the most well-known law enforcement individuals in International Asset Recovery, Thomas has truly been there and done that. His CV is littered with leading the biggest asset seizures in the world, from crypto to complex, as the Head of International Assets at the United States Marshals Service."

I"’m humbled and thrilled that TJ has decided to join us on this journey to build Asset Reality into the global leader in asset recovery services. His wealth of experience will ensure our developers build the best software solutions for the world of complex seized assets and help victims and governments recover funds.”

TJ has already gotten well into the swing of things at Asset Reality, spending his first week in Cairo, Egypt with Aidan last week to deliver a crypto training session for The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (ROMENA). He’ll also be speaking about crypto asset recovery at Crypto DC, the next event from our partner Chainalysis in Washington D.C in 2 weeks time.

If you would like to know more about our work in crypto-related frauds and asset recovery, contact connect@assetreality.com

For press enquiries, contact comms@assetreality.com