An employee of the Minnesota Timberwolves was fired, arrested and charged with felony third-degree burglary for allegedly stealing thousands of internal files, including “strategic NBA information,” from a team executive, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday and obtained by ESPN.
The Timberwolves told ESPN that they were aware of the allegations and had no further comment at this time. A source told ESPN that the team would not pursue criminal charges.
Somak Sarkar, 33, who previously served as a coaching analyst for the Timberwolves, is in custody and faces a court hearing Thursday afternoon in Minnesota.
On Feb. 2, the complaint says, Sachin Gupta, a Timberwolves executive vice president who oversees the team’s analytics department, left a hard drive connected to a laptop in his office at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.
That drive contained Gupta’s personal financial information as well as private information for the team, including employment and player contracts.
Another employee was able to recover the hard drive from Sarkar, and the team determined, after a forensic analysis, that he had accessed more than 5,000 files and downloaded them onto another device.