Ex-Timberwolves employee released after allegedly stealing thousands of internal documents from team

A former Minnesota Timberwolves employee was released from custody on Thursday after he allegedly stole thousands of internal files, including “strategic NBA information,” from a team executive, according to court filings obtained by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.

Somak Sarkar was arrested on Monday, several weeks after he was fired from the team. Sarkar, 33, allegedly took a hard drive from the Target Center office of Timberwolves executive Sachin Gupta, who oversees the team’s analytics department. That drive reportedly contained Gupta’s personal financial information, private team information, employee and player contracts and more.

Sarkar was charged with felony third-degree burglary, and was released without bail after his initial court hearing on Thursday. As part of his release, he has to stay away from all Timberwolves property and he can't have contact with Gupta. He is due in court again on May 16.

A different employee eventually recovered the hard drive from Sarkar. The team said Sarkar had accessed more than 5,000 files and downloaded them onto another device. The team fired him last month after the alleged theft, and he was arrested on Monday as police found several hard drives, a computer and three tablets at his home while executing a search warrant. One of those hard drives contained the information from Gupta’s hard drive, per the report.

Sarkar reportedly told police that he had “to put some stuff on” the hard drive, but that he forgot to return it. Sarkar had worked in Gupta’s department initially, but he was transferred out last year and onto the coaching staff department due to poor job performance.

Sarkar joined the Timberwolves in 2021 after working in various roles with the Houston Rockets, New York Knicks and New Orleans Pelicans.