A Los Angeles woman who prosecutors say illegally sold the ketamine that killed the actor Matthew Perry has agreed to plead guilty, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
The woman, Jasveen Sangha, could face up to 65 years in prison on five federal charges connected with Mr. Perry’s overdose. Prosecutors say she has agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Ms. Sangha, 42, who prosecutors said had been known to customers as the “Ketamine Queen,” had been scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 23. Her lawyer, Mark Geragos, had previously denied the allegations against Ms. Sangha, saying in a documentary released this year that she “never met Matthew Perry” and “had nothing to do with Matthew Perry.”
A dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, Ms. Sangha has been in federal custody since August 2024. She is expected to formally enter a guilty plea in the coming weeks, prosecutors said.
Mr. Perry was found floating face down in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28, 2023. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office eventually determined he had died of the “acute effects of ketamine,” a powerful anesthetic that has become increasingly popular as a therapy for depression and is also used as a recreational drug. The actor, known for his role as Chandler Bing on the 1990s sitcom “Friends,” had written openly about his struggles with addiction in a memoir.
Over the past year, as federal prosecutors laid out their case against several people they charged with providing the ketamine that killed Mr. Perry, Ms. Sangha emerged as a figure of particular intrigue. (The other four people involved — including a doctor who had been scheduled to go to trial alongside Ms. Sangha — have all agreed to plead guilty for their roles in Mr. Perry’s death.)
When the authorities raided Ms. Sangha’s apartment in March 2024, they said they found cocaine, 79 vials of ketamine and three pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine.
On an Instagram account, Ms. Sangha advertised herself as a curator of art and events and a jet-setter who routinely hopped between London and Los Angeles. She bolstered that image with photos and videos from pools, dance parties and fancy dinners around the world, appearing with Charlie Sheen, DJ Khaled and Perla Hudson, the ex-wife of the guitarist Slash.
Ms. Sangha heard of Mr. Perry’s interest in ketamine through an acquaintance who was in touch with the actor’s personal assistant and offered to send a sample, court documents say. She sought to project an air of exclusivity, calling her supply “amazing” and telling her acquaintance, Erik Fleming, “Take one and try it and I have more if he likes.”
Two days after the offer, prosecutors say, Ms. Sangha sent the actor a ketamine sample in an unlabeled glass vial with a blue cap. The government says Mr. Fleming and Mr. Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, acted as intermediaries. The next day, Mr. Iwamasa bought 25 vials on Mr. Perry’s behalf, according to the indictment; when he bought 25 more vials two weeks later, Ms. Sangha threw in some ketamine lollipops as well.
One of those 50 vials contained the ketamine that killed Mr. Perry, prosecutors say.
After Ms. Sangha learned of the actor’s death through news reports, she quickly sought to destroy evidence of her involvement, prosecutors said in court documents. “Delete all our messages,” she told Mr. Fleming.
Mr. Perry was not the only person who died after buying ketamine from Ms. Sangha, prosecutors allege in an indictment. The court documents say that Cody McLaury died of an overdose shortly after Ms. Sangha sold him ketamine in August 2019.
Despite knowledge of Mr. McLaury’s death, prosecutors say, Ms. Sangha continued to distribute illegal drugs from her apartment for the next five years.
In her plea agreement, prosecutors say Ms. Sangha also admitted to selling Mr. McLaury four vials of ketamine.
Matt Stevens is a Times reporter who writes about arts and culture from Los Angeles.
The post Dealer Known as ‘Ketamine Queen’ to Plead Guilty in Matthew Perry Case appeared first on New York Times.
