Former T-Wolves Staffer Arrested, Charged with Stealing Strategic Info on Hard Drive

A former Minnesota Timberwolves employee has been charged with stealing strategic information from the hard drive of the head of the team's analytics department.

Per Paul Walsh of the Star Tribune, Somak Sarkar, 33, was arrested on Monday and charged with felony third-degree burglary in Hennepin County District Court. He remains jailed in lieu of $40,000 bail and is scheduled for a court appearance on Thursday afternoon.

Sachin Gupta, the head of Minnesota's analytics department, had his work hard drive stolen from his Target Center office last month, per a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. When he got his hard drive back a week later, it was found that "roughly 5,700 files were copied that held employment and player contracts, 'as well as strategic NBA information,'" per Walsh.

The hard drive also contained Gupta's tax returns and other financial information, plus his login and passwords from a password management app, according to the complaint. Sarkar was fired after the team learned of the hard drive's disappearance.

The team said in a statement that it was "aware of these allegations and will have no further comment as it is an ongoing legal matter."

Per the complaint, Sarkar told police after his arrest that as a member of Minnesota's coaching staff, he took Gupta's hard drive to "put some stuff on it" but forgot to return it. After a search warrant was executed for Sarkar's apartment near Target Center, authorities uncovered several hard drives, a computer, three tablets and multiple USB drives, the complaint stated. Police said one of the devices "contained all the information from [Gupta's] hard drive."

"Gupta is concerned that Sarkar is going to disseminate the proprietary Timberwolves information and his private information," one of the court documents stated.

Gupta first joined the Timberwolves in 2019 as an executive vice president, and he served as interim president of basketball operations during the 2021-22 season. After Tim Connelly assumed that role in May 2022, Gupta remained with Minnesota as an executive vice president under Connelly, leading the analytics department.