Skip to content
Sam Bankman-Fried- Case Archive
personpersonJoseph PimbleyJoseph PimbleyFinancial consultant affiliated with PF2 Securities, with experience in quantitative finance, risk management, coding, and databases.← All People
WitnessPF2 Securities

Joseph Pimbley

Financial consultant affiliated with PF2 Securities, with experience in quantitative finance, risk management, coding, and databases.

AppearedFederal Criminal Trial
243 lines·6 proceedings·4 mentions

About

Defense witness Joseph Pimbley testified on Day 14 about database queries and charts prepared from what was represented to him as a snapshot of the FTX database. He described experience in quantitative finance, coding, databases, risk management, teaching, and financial data systems, while emphasizing that he had essentially no personal knowledge of the case beyond his assignment.

Pimbley said he reviewed the database and related Python code, ran and tested queries, compared results with a colleague, and used separate account- and user-ID queries to validate the Alameda results. Although a colleague supplied the initial Alameda line-of-credit query, Pimbley said he independently tested and validated it.

The defense charts tracked Alameda's in-use line of credit and summarized selected November 2022 account balances while excluding Alameda and FTX entities. Pimbley described the line of credit as slightly above $1 billion in the early months and near $3 billion before a sharp decline in mid-June 2022. The balance charts showed approximately $5.8 billion in four selected currencies and $8.9 billion across all currencies, with portions categorized through spot-margin, spot-margin-lending, or futures activity.

On cross-examination, Pimbley agreed that the charts showed the results of specified queries rather than broader conclusions about FTX's finances. He had not traced fiat or cryptocurrency, compared customer obligations with available assets, identified the sources of spending or repayments, or calculated how much customers actually lent through spot margin. He also said the selected categories did not establish why they belonged together or whether Alameda's balances resulted from spot-margin borrowing. Pimbley disclosed that the defense paid him $720 per hour for roughly 70 hours of work and denied that his compensation depended on his opinions or the outcome.

Trial Record (6)

FederalFederal Criminal TrialOct 3, 2023 – Nov 2, 2023Called by defense

Defense witness Joseph Pimbley presented database-query results concerning Alameda's line of credit and selected account balances. Cross-examination established that his charts reported query outputs but did not trace assets, measure customer shortfalls, or determine actual spot-margin lending.

Day 14

DirectJoseph Pimbley — DirectJoseph PimbleyChristian R. Everdell6highlights118lines spoken

Summary

Defense consultant Joseph Pimbley presented FTX database charts showing a sharp mid-June 2022 decline in Alameda's recorded credit use and November balances of about $5.8 billion in four selected currencies and $8.9 billion across all currencies, excluding Alameda and FTX entities. In the four-currency chart, 78 percent fell in the category combining spot-margin, spot-margin-lending, or futures-activity accounts. His work was limited to extracting and validating these figures.

Highlights (6)

testimony highlightPimbley described his financial, coding, database, and risk-management experience before explaining that the defense retained him to extract information from an FTX database snapshot.Open in transcript →
Quote“Other than the work I've performed, I have essentially zero knowledge beyond——it's really beyond what I've seen in headlines. I don't follow the stories, but what I know about headlines. The trial is going on, so I know that. I'm limited to that kind of knowledge.”— Joseph PimbleyPimbley expressly limited his knowledge to his database assignment and general awareness from headlines.Open in transcript →
Quote“So I also ran the query using the user ID. So it's a different query and it got exactly the same answers as the first result. That's one of the ways that I checked that the queries are correct.”— Joseph PimbleyHe described a separate user-ID query that reproduced the account-based result as a validation check.Open in transcript →
evidence eventDefense Exhibit 1617 was admitted and published; Pimbley said the graph showed Alameda's in-use line of credit slightly above $1 billion during the first months and near $3 billion before a sharp mid-June 2022 decline.Open in transcript →
Show all 6 highlights
testimony highlightFor the November 2022 snapshot, Pimbley reported about $5.8 billion in the four selected currencies, including $4.54 billion in the specified spot-margin, lending, or futures-activity category, and $8.9 billion across all currencies, including $6.91 billion in that category.Open in transcript →
Quote“The second part is, when there is an intent of what the query should be, I did as much as I could to look through the code as well to understand where the code was interacting with that particular data I was extracting, that the code also was consistent with my understanding of what it should mean.”— Joseph PimbleyPimbley explained that he compared the intended query meaning with the underlying code's interaction with the extracted data.Open in transcript →
CrossJoseph Pimbley — CrossJoseph PimbleyThane Rehn7highlights125lines spoken

Summary

Pimbley acknowledged that his defense charts were limited database extractions that did not address intent, asset tracing, customer shortfalls, or the significance of counsel-selected account categories; the court then began Bankman-Fried's admissibility hearing outside the jury's presence.

Highlights (7)

admissionPimbley acknowledged that he had not interviewed Bankman-Fried, FTX employees, customers, investors, or database developers and could not address Bankman-Fried's knowledge, intent, or use of the queried data.Open in transcript →
admissionPimbley confirmed that he reviewed no bank statements, performed no financial or blockchain tracing, and did not determine whether customer obligations exceeded available fiat or cryptocurrency or whether customer assets funded specified expenditures.Open in transcript →
Quote“I can't say. I also have no knowledge of that, so I certainly can't say.”— Joseph PimbleyPimbley expressly disclaimed knowledge of whether cryptocurrency used to repay Alameda's lenders came from FTX customer funds.Open in transcript →
evidence eventGovernment Exhibit 1737 was received and published. Pimbley explained that the code treated Alameda account ID 9 differently by adding two other accounts to the in-use line-of-credit calculation.Open in transcript →
Show all 7 highlights
Quote“Yes, sir, and it's the only snapshot I received in evidence in this case, yes, sir.”— Joseph PimbleyPimbley confirmed that his user-balance charts rested on a single database snapshot rather than a historical series.Open in transcript →
admissionPimbley testified that Cohen & Gresser—not he—selected the grouping of futures, spot-margin, and spot-margin-lending accounts, and that he did not evaluate the significance of grouping them.Open in transcript →
Quote“It was the Cohen & Gresser request to me that made that decision. I did not make that decision.”— Joseph PimbleyPimbley attributed the decision to group three account categories in the pie chart to defense counsel rather than to his own analysis.Open in transcript →

Day 18

Day 19