Former Minnesota Timberwolves employees member Somak Sarkar has been fired, arrested, and charged with felony third-degree housebreaking for allegedly stealing hundreds of inner recordsdata, together with “strategic NBA data,” from a crew government, in keeping with a legal grievance filed Wednesday.
Per Paul Walsh of the Star Tribune, Sarkar was accused of stealing strategic data from the arduous drive of the pinnacle of the crew’s analytics division.
Sarkar was arrested on Monday and charged in Hennepin County District Court docket. He stays jailed in lieu of $40,000 bail and is scheduled for a courtroom look on Thursday afternoon.
NEWS: A Timberwolves worker was fired, arrested and charged with felony third-degree housebreaking for allegedly stealing hundreds of inner recordsdata, in keeping with courtroom information obtained by ESPN. A supply mentioned that the crew wouldn’t pursue legal prices. https://t.co/H3GCjyz3Cn
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Sachin Gupta, the pinnacle of Minnesota’s analytics division, had his work arduous drive stolen from his Goal Middle workplace final month, per the legal grievance.
As head of the analytics division, Gupta had proprietary knowledge in his possession that the Wolves conceal from different groups. This consists of details about the wage cap, gamers’ earnings, contracts, and commerce negotiations.
When Gupta returned to work on Feb. 5, the arduous drive was lacking. Surveillance footage reviewed by safety revealed that Sarkar had twice entered Gupta’s workplace on Feb. 3 “after trying to see if anybody may see him,” the grievance says. “He then left.”
Ex-Minnesota Timberwolves teaching analyst Somak Sarkar copied about 5,700 recordsdata from arduous drive
When Gupta recovered his arduous drive every week later, it was discovered that “roughly 5,700 recordsdata had been copied that held employment and participant contracts, ‘in addition to strategic NBA data,’” per Walsh.
In keeping with the grievance, the arduous drive additionally contained Gupta’s tax returns and different monetary data, alongside along with his login and passwords from a password administration app. The Timberwolves fired Sarkar after the crew realized of the arduous drive’s disappearance.
Sarkar, 33, informed police after his arrest that as a member of Minnesota’s teaching employees, he took Gupta’s arduous drive to “put some stuff on it” however forgot to return it.
Somak Sarkar, an worker of the Minnesota Timberwolves, was fired and arrested on prices of third-degree housebreaking, per @baxter
He’s accused of taking a number of inner recordsdata, together with “strategic NBA data,” from a crew government
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— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 20, 2024
The police executed a search warrant at Sarkar’s condo. Investigators uncovered a number of arduous drives, a pc, three tablets, and a number of USB drives, the grievance acknowledged. Police mentioned one of many units “contained all the knowledge from [Gupta’s] arduous drive.”
In response to the investigation, the Timberwolves mentioned in an announcement that they’re “conscious of those allegations and may have no additional remark as it’s an ongoing authorized matter.”
Sarkar joined the Timberwolves in August 2021. He beforehand labored in different analytics positions with the New York Knicks and New Orleans Pelicans. He additionally labored as a basketball operations intern for the Houston Rockets from October 2012 to June 2013.
Sarkar has been in NBA entrance places of work since his internship with Houston. This was earlier than he graduated in 2013 from Rice College, per the Texas faculty’s Division of Sports activities Administration.
After the crew fired Gersson Rosas in September 2021, Gupta turned interim head of basketball operations. The Timberwolves then selected Tim Connelly from the Denver Nuggets in Might 2022 to succeed Rosas.
Gupta has remained with the Wolves as government vp, main the analytics division beneath Connelly.