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A criminal complaint filed Wednesday revealed that a work hard drive containing sensitive strategic team information was stolen by a disgruntled employee from the Target Center office of the head of the Minnesota Timberwolves' analytics department last month.
Somak Sarkar, aged 33, was fired from the Timberwolves and subsequently arrested on Monday. He faces felony third-degree burglary charges in Hennepin County District Court, as reported by Paul Walsh of the Star Tribune.
Sarkar is currently in custody with bail set at $40,000 and is expected to appear in court on Thursday afternoon.
Timberwolves theft details
According to the complaint, on February 2, Sachin Gupta, the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Timberwolves, left a hard drive connected to a laptop in his office at the Target Center. When Gupta returned to work on February 5, the hard drive was missing. Subsequent surveillance footage reviewed by security showed that Sarkar had entered Gupta's office twice on February 3, “after checking to see if anyone could see him,” before leaving.
The specifics of the alleged theft are outlined in the complaint and a search warrant affidavit submitted by the police to gain court approval to search Sarkar's apartment near Target Center. This includes searching for evidence related to potential financial gain from selling the stolen financial and proprietary Timberwolves information.
A search of Sarkar’s apartment revealed several hard drives, a computer, three tablets, and multiple USB drives, according to the complaint. Police identified that one of these devices “contained all the information from [Gupta's] hard drive.”
Contents of Sachin Gupta’s hard drive
Gupta managed to recover the hard drive a little over a week later. However, approximately 5,700 files were copied during the theft, containing sensitive information such as employment and player contracts, along with strategic NBA data.
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The hard drive also contained Gupta's tax returns, financial details, as well as his login credentials and passwords from a password management application, as stated in the complaint.
Serving as the head of the analytics department, Gupta had access to sensitive and proprietary data that the Timberwolves keep hidden from other teams. This data includes crucial information about players, decision-making strategies, contracts, and trade negotiations.
With the confidential information in danger of being shared with other teams, it could significantly impact the Timberwolves' competitiveness in a constantly changing NBA landscape.
According to the complaint, Sarkar told police during questioning after his arrest that he had Gupta's hard drive as part of his coaching duties to “put some stuff on it” but forgot to return it.
Somak Sarkar’s background
Sarkar joined the Timberwolves in August 2021 after holding analytics-related positions with the New York Knicks and the New Orleans Pelicans according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he served as a basketball operations intern for the Houston Rockets from October 2012 to June 2013.
The team released a statement and stressed that it is “aware of these allegations and will not provide further comment as it is an ongoing legal matter.”
