A Los Angeles woman known as “Ketamine Queen” has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling drugs that led to the death of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.actor Matthew Perry.
Jasveen Sangha, 42, pleaded guilty last September to five charges, including one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death or bodily injury.
Prosecutors described the American-British dual national’s North Hollywood home as a “drug-selling emporium” selling a range of drugs to wealthy and well-connected clients.
The judge said Sangha must answer for her crimes, adding that she had shown no remorse in the years since her arrest.
Perry, who had struggled with addiction for years, was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in October 2023. Investigators determined his death was caused by the acute effects of ketamine.
Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic with hallucinogenic effects and is meant to be administered only by a physician.
Given an opportunity to address the court, Sangha admitted that her poor decisions had shattered people’s lives, and said she was deeply ashamed and sorry for what she did.
Ahead of the sentencing, Perry’s stepmother Debbie Perry asked the judge to hand the maximum possible prison term. “You caused this... You who has talent for business enough to make money chose the one way that hurts people,” she said. “Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won’t be able to hurt other families like ours.”
Federal authorities found dozens of ketamine vials during a raid at Sangha’s Los Angeles home and accused her of supplying the injectable drug from her “stash house” in North Hollywood since at least 2019.
Thousands of pills, including methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax, were also recovered.
Sangha initially denied the charges but agreed to change her plea in August, weeks before her trial was scheduled to begin.
As part of the plea agreement, she also admitted to selling ketamine to a man named Cody McLaury in August 2019, who died hours later from a drug overdose, according to the US Department of Justice.
She faced a maximum sentence of 65 years in federal prison. Sangha has been in custody since August 2024, her attorneys said. Several letters in support of Sangha were also filed in court by her family and friends.
Her lawyers in March sought a more lenient sentence, arguing she had “accepted responsibility for serious criminal conduct” and had no prior record.
Sangha is among five people — including medical doctors and the actor’s assistant — whom US officials say supplied ketamine to Perry, exploiting his addiction for profit and leading to his overdose death.
The other four have also agreed to plead guilty.
Dr Salvador Plasencia, who supplied the actor with ketamine in the weeks before his death, was sentenced in December to 30 months in prison. Dr Mark Chavez, a California doctor who sold ketamine to Perry, was sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release.
The San Diego-based physician admitted to obtaining ketamine through a fraudulent prescription from his clinic and a wholesale distributor and selling it to Plasencia, who then supplied it to Perry.
Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who helped purchase and inject the actor with ketamine, is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, though his legal team has sought a postponement.
Eric Fleming, who sold ketamine obtained from Sangha to Perry, is scheduled to be sentenced in June.