A disgruntled employee stole a hard drive last month containing “strategic NBA information” from the office of a Minnesota Timberwolves executive and copied it, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Star-Tribune Wednesday. Somak Sarkar, 33, was arrested Monday and charged with third-degree burglary following the alleged incident. It’s unclear what, if anything, Sarkar may have done with the 5,700 files contained on the hard drive, which included “strategic” team information, contracts for players and other employees of the organization, as well as executive Sanchin Gupta’s personal financial information. As head of the Timberwolves’ analytics department, Gupta also had access to sensitive information about coaching strategy, contracts and trade negotiations, all of which could have devastating results if it were to fall into the hands of another team. The organization fired Sarkar after learning of the allegations, the Star-Tribune reported. Gupta told police that he got the hard drive back a little over a week after it had been taken—though when questioned by cops Sarkar said that he had Gupta’s hard drive to “put some stuff on it” and simply forgot to give it back, the complaint stated. The team told the Star-Tribune that it was “aware of these allegations and will have no further comment as it is an ongoing legal matter.”
