The Minnesota Timberwolves have fired an worker who was later arrested and charged with a third-degree felony for housebreaking for allegedly taking a tough drive of a high-ranking crew worker that contained confidential crew data and personal private information.
Somak Sarkar was terminated as a training analyst by the Timberwolves final month after he was discovered to have taken an exterior onerous drive that belonged to a different Timberwolves worker. The alleged sufferer of the theft was recognized by the initials “S.G.” within the criticism and named because the crew’s govt vice chairman. That particular person is believed to be Sachin Gupta, an govt vice chairman of basketball operations with the group.
In line with a criticism filed on the Hennepin County District Court docket, Gupta had left an exterior onerous drive related to a pc in his workplace on the crew’s headquarters on Feb. 2. When he returned to work Feb. 5, Gupta discovered that the onerous drive was gone. The drive contained private and work data, together with worker and participant contracts. The criticism stated it additionally included “strategic NBA data,” however didn’t elaborate on what that data was.
The crew was capable of decide that Sarkar had taken the onerous drive by checking badge use information and video feeds, based on the criticism. Sarkar entered the crew’s facility on Feb. 3 when nobody else was round and went into Gupta’s workplace. Sarkar “entered the workplace twice after seeking to see if anybody might see him” after which left, the criticism stated. Sarkar was fired instantly, based on the criticism.
One other Timberwolves worker was capable of get the onerous drive again from Sarkar. After a forensic evaluation, the crew discovered that Sarkar had used his work pc to open a number of the recordsdata on the onerous drive and that greater than 5,000 recordsdata had been accessed and transferred to a special gadget.
Sarkar was arrested on Monday. After acquiring a search warrant, cops discovered three tablets, a pc and a number of onerous drives, certainly one of which contained all the data from Gupta’s onerous drive. Sarkar informed police that he had the onerous drive as a result of he was a member of the crew’s teaching workers, needed to “put some stuff on it” and forgot to return the onerous drive.
Sarkar had labored underneath Gupta till August when he was transferred due to poor job efficiency, based on the criticism.
He was launched with out bail on Thursday and ordered to avoid Timberwolves property as a situation of his bail. Sarkar additionally can not have any contact with Gupta.
A spokesperson for the Timberwolves stated that the crew is conscious of the allegations and has no remark.
In line with his LinkedIn profile, Sarkar joined the Timberwolves in August 2021 and in addition labored in analytics for the New York Knicks from January 2021 to July 2021 and the New Orleans Pelicans from September 2013 to August 2020. He additionally labored as a basketball operations intern for the Houston Rockets from October 2012 to June 2013.
Crew sources inside the Rockets group stated they haven’t any plans in the mean time to analyze Sarkar’s lone season in Houston.
“There’s extra we have to study concerning the case,” Ryan Pacyga, an lawyer representing Sarkar, stated. “We’re ready for the proof. I’m listening to some info that might be favorable, however I don’t need to put these info out till I can affirm these info.”
Sarkar’s subsequent court docket date is Might 16.
(Picture: David Sherman / NBAE through Getty Photos)