What Role Did 'Ketamine Queen' Jasveen Sangha Play in Matthew Perry's Death?

Several years have passed since actor Matthew Perry died following an accidental ketamine overdose, but the far-reaching legal implications of the Friends star’s sudden passing have continued to play out in court.

In early April 2026, Jasveen Sangha, who received the nickname “Ketamine Queen” from the Department of Justice, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to illegally selling the ketamine that killed Perry in 2023 and contributed to at least one other death in 2019.

But Sangha isn’t the only one who has faced legal repercussions for their role in Perry’s death. 

Sangha, 42 at the time of her conviction, graduated from high school in Calabasas, Calif., before attending the University of California, Irvine, where she earned a degree in social sciences. Splitting her time between Los Angeles and London, where she also earned an MBA from Hult International Business School, Sangha regularly shared photos and videos from glitzy events and venues around the world, even rubbing elbows with stars like DJ Khaled and Charlie Sheen in locations from Japan and Dubai to Spain and Mexico.

On social media, Sangha described herself as an art and event curator, but federal prosecutors said she had been using a North Hollywood apartment to “store, package and distribute narcotics, including ketamine and methamphetamine, since at least June 2019.” 

“To cultivate her business, [Sangha] marketed herself as an exclusive dealer who catered to high-profile Hollywood clientele,” prosecutors argued in their sentencing memorandum. “While [she] worked to expand and profit from her drug trafficking, she knew—and disregarded—the grave harm her conduct was causing.”

According to the Department of Justice, Sangha also admitted to selling four vials of ketamine to 33-year-old aspiring personal trainer Cody McLaury hours before he died of a drug overdose in 2019. McLaury’s family wrote in his obituary that they’d always remember him for his “sweet nature, giant hugs and heart of gold.”

Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the iconic sitcom, was open about his struggles with addiction, depression and anxiety and his multiple stints in rehab in the years leading up to his death. His memoir, released in October 2022, begins with the disclosure that he had almost died just a few years earlier after his colon had burst from opioid overuse. 

At the time of his death, the 54-year-old star had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat his depression and anxiety, but prosecutors said he had developed an “out of control” dependence on the anesthetic and had also been seeking it out beyond these supervised doses. 

In October 2023, Sangha and Erik Fleming, another dealer, sold 51 vials of ketamine to Perry via Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. According to prosecutors, Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with ketamine that month, including at least three shots of ketamine that were administered the day the actor was found face down in the hot tub at his residence in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

After learning that Perry died, Sangha contacted Fleming via the Signal messaging app and told him to “delete all our messages.” She also updated her settings to automatically delete all her messages with him, according to prosecutors. Two days later, Fleming texted Sangha, saying he was “90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry]. Only his Assistant. So the Assistant was the enabler.”

Sangha was first arrested in March 2024 after her apartment was searched by law enforcement. During the search, officers found “thousands of pressed methamphetamine pills, 79 vials of liquid ketamine, MDMA (Ecstasy) tablets, counterfeit Xanax pills, baggies containing powdered ketamine and cocaine, and other drug trafficking items” including drug packaging materials and a scale, prosecutors said. 

At her sentencing hearing, Sangha said in the courtroom that she’d “pray for forgiveness every day” for her “poor choices” and “horrible decisions.” She went on to thank the judge for “the harshest reality check of my life.” Her defense lawyers pushed for a sentence of time served.

Meanwhile, Perry’s stepfather, Keith Morrison, described to the judge the “daily, grinding sadness and sorrow” that he and his wife, Perry’s mother, Suzanne, had felt following the actor’s death. 

“There was a spark to that man I have never seen anywhere else,” Morrison, a longtime broadcast journalist and Dateline correspondent, said in the courtroom. “He should have had another act. Two more acts.”

Federal prosecutors asked for a 15-year sentence for Sangha, writing in a court filing that she “sold drugs that hurt people” and took “actions [that] show a callousness and disregard for life.” U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett seemingly agreed, handing down the same sentence that prosecutors had pushed for.

In total, four people, two of them doctors, in addition to Sangha have been charged in connection with Perry’s death. Both Fleming and Iwamasa pleaded guilty to federal narcotics charges in August 2024. Fleming was sentenced on May 13, 2026, to 24 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release. Two weeks later, Iwamasa received a sentence of 41 months in prison. He must also pay separate fines of $10,000 and $100, and be on supervised released for two years.

Salvador Plascencia, known as Dr. P., pleaded guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution in July 2025 and surrendered his California medical license after repeatedly selling ketamine to Perry despite knowing his history of addiction. Plascencia is serving a 30-month sentence.

Mark Chavez pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and surrendered his medical license the next month, according to the Department of Justice. He operated a ketamine clinic that sold the drug to Plascencia, who then provided it to Perry. He was sentenced to three years of probation, eight months of home detention and 300 hours of community service.