Ex-Timberwolves staffer admits stealing team exec’s hard drive holding sensitive team data

A former Timberwolves administration staffer has admitted to stealing a computer hard drive holding sensitive strategic team information from the Target Center office of the head of the analytics department.

Somak Sarkar, 33, agreed Wednesday to plead guilty in Hennepin County District Court in connection with the theft on Feb. 3 of the hard drive of Sachin Gupta. The hard drive contained roughly 5,700 files that held employment, player contracts and other strategic information.

Also on the hard drive were Gupta’s tax returns and other financial information, and his login and passwords from a password management app, the criminal complaint said.

Sarkar’s attorney Ryan Pacyga told the Star Tribune on Thursday that his client admitted to a gross misdemeanor count of unauthorized computer access in exchange for dismissal of the felony burglary charge. Pacyga said Sarkar, who now lives in East Brunswick, N.J., will be spared jail time upon sentencing on July 9.

As head of the analytics department, Gupta had sensitive proprietary data in his possession that the Wolves conceal from other teams, such as information about players and decisionmaking, contracts or trade negotiations.

The team fired Sarkar after learning of the hard drive’s disappearance and the allegation that he copied the data.

Team officials on Thursday declined to comment about their former employee’s admission. They also would not say whether any of the data that Sarkar allegedly copied harmed the franchise or Gupta personally.

Sarkar has been in NBA front offices since he interned with the Houston Rockets in 2012 while on his way to graduating in 2013 from Rice University, according to the Texas school’s Department of Sports Management. He landed his first permanent job in the NBA with the New Orleans Pelicans later that year as a strategic analyst, his Rice online profile said.

While in New Orleans, he crossed paths with several people now working for the Wolves, including head coach Chris Finch, assistant coach Kevin Hanson and front office assistant Dell Demps.

Sarkar spent a year with the New York Knicks before joining the Wolves in August 2021. He was originally the team’s coaching analyst, acting as a liaison between the coaching staff and the analytics department. He first reported to the analytics department, but that changed in June 2023 when he began reporting to coaches.

Details of the theft were spelled out in the complaint and a search warrant affidavit filed by police seeking court permission to look for evidence in Sarkar’s Minneapolis apartment near Target Center, including the discovery of any “monies to show profit of the sale of the stolen financial information and proprietary Timberwolves information.”

The search turned up several hard drives, a computer, three tablets and multiple USB drives, the complaint read. Police then determined that one of the devices “contained all the information from [Gupta’s] hard drive.”

According to court documents, Gupta told police on March 4 that Sarkar had worked in analytics for the coaches until last summer but was reassigned after “butting heads” with his immediate superior.

On Feb. 2, Gupta left his hard drive on his desk connected to one of his two laptops. Late in the afternoon of Feb. 3, a Saturday, security video recorded Sarkar entering Gupta’s office. When Gupta returned to work Feb. 5, he saw that his hard drive was missing. On Feb. 9, Sarkar was fired.

An analysis of Sarkar’s work computer found that he used his device to open Gupta’s hard drive.

On Feb. 12, a friend of Sarkar’s who is also a Wolves employee got the hard drive and brought it to Gupta. A forensic analysis revealed that 5,700 files were copied on Feb. 11.