A makeshift memorial for actor Matthew Perry is pictured on Bedford Street in Manhattan in New York City, U.S., October 30, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
When Matthew Perry was found dead in his hot tub in October 2023, investigators began unwinding a drug supply chain that stretched from a Los Angeles dealer nicknamed the “Ketamine Queen” all the way to the “Friends” star’s front door. The woman at the top of that chain, Jasveen Sangha, 42, is due in court Wednesday to learn her fate.
Sangha pleaded guilty in September to five felony counts tied to Perry’s death. Federal prosecutors are pushing for a 15-year prison sentence, painting her as a calculating trafficker who put profit ahead of human life. “While defendant worked to expand and profit from her drug trafficking, she knew — and disregarded — the grave harm her conduct was causing,” prosecutors said in court documents.
Her defense team sees it differently. Attorneys for Sangha, who has been held since August 2024, are asking the judge to impose a sentence of time already served. They argue that she has accepted responsibility, has a documented history of substance abuse, and has made genuine strides toward recovery behind bars. “She has maintained sustained and exemplary sobriety, and actively engaged in recovery-oriented and rehabilitative programming while in custody,” her attorneys said.
A dual U.S.-British citizen, Sangha admitted to supplying 51 vials of ketamine to an intermediary dealer, Erik Fleming, who then sold the doses to Perry through his live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. Sangha acknowledged knowing at the time that the vials were destined for Perry. It was Iwamasa, prosecutors said, who ultimately injected the actor with at least three shots of ketamine from those vials — doses that proved fatal.
Medical examiners determined that Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine, which combined with other contributing factors to cause him to lose consciousness and drown. He was 54.
Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, legally prescribed to treat depression and anxiety, but also widely used as a recreational party drug. In Perry’s case, it became deadly.
Perry had spoken openly throughout his life about his long and turbulent battle with addiction — struggles that had at times run parallel to his career peak as Chandler Bing, the sardonic and beloved character he played on the hit NBC comedy “Friends” throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. His death shocked fans worldwide and drew renewed attention to the dangers of ketamine misuse, including through so-called “ketamine therapy” arrangements that can be exploited to obtain the drug outside of clinical oversight.
Fleming and Iwamasa have also pleaded guilty and are set to be sentenced later this month, bringing closer to conclusion a case that cast a long shadow over how easily prescription anesthetics can flow from licensed channels into illicit ones.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah

