Jasveen Sangha, who admitted to distributing the drug that caused the death of the Friends actor, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday, April 8 in Los Angeles.
This may be the final episode of a very tragic season. On April 8, Jasveen Sangha, also known as “the queen of Ketamine,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Los Angeles prosecutor. Her conviction follows the death of actor Matthew Perry, who was found dead in his jacuzzi on October 28, 2023. Arrested in August 2024, Jasveen Sangha pleaded guilty to one count of managing a drug-related location, three counts of distributing ketamine, and one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
In his memoirs titled Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, published a year before his death, Matthew Perry recounted his long struggle with addiction. Among them, ketamine, an anesthetic administered to him by his personal assistant via IV infusion as a treatment for his depression and anxiety. While he remembered the unwavering support of Courteney Cox, his co-star in Friends , the 54-year-old actor unfortunately could not rely only on those working in his best interests.
In reality, although his death was deemed accidental, four people in addition to Jasveen Sangha were indicted in August 2024 for causing the actor’s death. Among them, Kenneth Iwamasa, his longtime assistant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine, as did Erik Fleming, a close friend of Matthew Perry, identified as Jasveen Sangha’s intermediary. Dr. Mark Chavez, who supplied the drug, was sentenced to 8 months of house detention and three years of supervised release. Finally, Dr. Salvador Plasencia, also accused of providing the illegal substances to the actor, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in December 2025.
Prosecutors stated that “the queen of Ketamine” had provided the drug to Erik Fleming, her intermediary, who then passed it on to Matthew Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. In October 2023, 51 vials of ketamine were sold to the actor. On the day of his death, his assistant injected him with at least three doses of ketamine, leading to his demise. In the documentary Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy, released on February 25, American prosecutor Martin Estrada revealed that the actor had received 27 doses of ketamine in the last five days of his life.
