Who is Somak Sarkar accused of stealing strategic NBA information from Timberwolves exec?

For any NBA team to succeed, the players performing on the court must produce results. Behind this simplistic concept, a lot of different facets come into play. To run an organization, the whole workforce has to be motivated towards a common goal. The front office can keep the players happy with financial perks and contract extensions, while the supporting cast in the back keeps the players operating at an optimum level.

But for the Minnesota Timberwolves, not all the employees are on the same wavelength. Some were there for their personal gain and news of such a person named Somak Sarkar came to the surface recently.

Who is Somak Sarkar?

Somak Sarkar is one of the coaching staff members of the 3rd seeded team in the Western Conference table, the Minnesota Timberwolves, who was taken behind bars.

As per the information gathered from his LinkedIn profile, the 33-year-old joined the analytics department in August 2021 under the supervision of Sachin Gupta, who is the executive vice president of the Minnesota franchise.

Before joining the Timberwolves, Sarkar worked in the same position at the New York Knicks and New Orleans Pelicans. Despite having enough experience as a coaching analyst, he was transferred to the coaching division after roughly two years due to his low efficiency.

The former Houston Rockets operations intern has surrounded himself with a lot of attention but for all the wrong reasons.

Somak Sarkar allegedly stole Timberwolves exec’s hard drive

Soumak Sarkar was not only fired from his job but also taken into custody for allegedly stealing the Timberwolves’ sensitive information, which includes the league’s strategic plans.

According to the complaint, Sachin Gupta, the executive VP, inattentively left a hard drive on Feb. 2 that contained several pieces of information, attached to a laptop. Three days later, when he returned to his office at the Target Center, he discovered that the hard drive was missing.

The police went to Sarkar’s house after getting a search warrant. During their investigation, they found a digital treasure chest with several hard drives, USB sticks, a computer, and three tablets.

After a careful investigation, a shocking discovery was made: one of Sarkar’s devices had a digital copy of all the files that Gupta had lost from his hard drive. This new information made the case against Sarkar much stronger by pointing to a possible motive and the location of the stolen data.

The drive held Gupta’s financial data, the team’s confidential information, and the players’ contracts. Luckily, a kind colleague was able to assist in recovering the information from the hard drive. As per the forensic department, Sarkar managed to access and download more than 5000 files from the drive.

Sarkar got arrested on Monday for the felony of third-degree burglary, although he has not accepted his fault and stated that he had taken out the drive to serve some work-related purpose but forgot to give it back. While he was released on $40,000 bail on Wednesday, Sarkar will be presented in state court on Thursday.