The Minnesota Timberwolves have suffered a major information leak, as confirmed by a criminal complaint filed on Wednesday against 33-year-old Somak Sarkar for stealing confidential information from Executive Vice President Sachin Gupta, according to ESPN.
“A Minnesota Timberwolves employee was fired, arrested, and charged with felony third-degree burglary for allegedly stealing thousands of internal files, including ‘strategic NBA information,’ from a team executive, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday and obtained by ESPN.”
Sarkar served as a coaching analyst for the Timberwolves. He is now in custody and faces a court hearing on Thursday afternoon in Minnesota.
The incident took place after Gupta, the former interim team President and current executive vice president, left a hard drive in his office at the Target Center, the Wolves’ home arena, on February 2. The drive contained sensitive information like Gupta’s personal financial data and team information such as employment and player contracts.
The hard drive was missing on February 5 when Gupta came into work. It was found with relative ease, as Sarkar was seen entering Gupta’s office twice on February 3, with the complaint stating that it looked like Sarkar was checking to see if anyone could see him.
Another employee recovered the hard drive, and the team realized that Sarkar had accessed and copied around 5000 files from Gupta. An ensuing search warrant found several hard drives, a computer, and three tablets. A second warrant confirmed that one of the devices contained information acquired from Gupta.
Sarkar attempted to explain this situation to the police by saying he had the drive to put information into it in his capacity as a member of the coaching staff, but he forgot to return it. According to the complaint, Sarkar had been transferred to the coaching department from Gupta’s team in August 2023 for poor job performance. He has previously worked for the Knicks, Pelicans, and Rockets as well.
Sarkar began his NBA career as an intern with the Rockets in 2013 as an intern, coincidentally when Gupta was in his final season with the Rockets front office. Sarkar would go on to work for the Pelicans analytics team for seven years until a seven-month stint with the Knicks in 2021. He then joined the Wolves in Gupta’s year as interim President.
The stolen information could be of great value to the franchise, as Gupta is the second-most important executive on the Wolves after President Tim Connelly. Gupta served as President for the 2021-22 season after Gerson Rosas was fired, but would return to his position as Executive Vice President when the team brought on Connelly. Gupta also leads the team’s analytics department.
The Wolves are 47-22 this season, competing for the No. 1 seed in the West.
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