(NEXSTAR) — Five people have been charged in the accidental ketamine overdose death of actor Matthew Perry, investigators announced Thursday.
Among those charged were a live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and two medical doctors, Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said during a press conference Thursday.
"These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry, but they did it anyways," Estrada said. "In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being."
According to Estrada, Chavez, a San Diego physician, sold ketamine to Plasencia that had allegedly been diverted from his former ketamine clinic; obtained by submitting a false prescription; and obtained by making false representation to a wholesale ketamine distributor.
One doctor even wrote in a text message, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets find out," according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.
In September and October of last year, Plasencia allegedly distributed ketamine to Perry and Iwamasa multiple times "outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose." Estrada said Plasencia taught Iwamasa how to inject Perry with the ketamine and sold it to him.
Authorities say Plasencia worked with Iwamasa to "distribute approximately 20 vials of ketamine to Mr. Perry in exchange for $55,000 in cash."
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in one instance the actor paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12. Perry paid the doctors about $55,000 in cash in the two months before his death, Estrada said.
In mid-October, Iwamasa allegedly began getting ketamine for Perry from Erik Fleming of Hawthorne and Jasveen Sangha, described as "the Ketamine Queen." Fleming sourced his ketamine from Sangha and dealt it to Perry, Estrada said.
On the day that Perry was found unresponsive at his Pacific Palisades home, he had allegedly received multiple ketamine injections from Iwamasa that had been sold to him by Fleming and Sangha. Iwamasa was the one who found Perry face down in his hot tub on Oct. 28, and paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead.
Following an autopsy, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner revealed in December that he died from “acute effects of ketamine.”
According to the autopsy report, there were "trace amounts of ketamine detected" in Perry's "stomach contents." The actor was said to be "receiving ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety."
Per the report, Perry’s last known treatment was one and a half weeks before his death and the ketamine that was in his system when he died “could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is three to four hours, or less."
Plasencia and Sangha were arrested Thursday morning, Estrada said. Chavez has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Fleming has pleaded guilty to obtaining the drug from Sangha and delivering them to Iwamasa. Iwamasa also signed a plea agreement.
Sangha and Plasencia could make their first court appearances later Thursday. Plasencia could get up to 120 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said, and Sangha could get life in prison.
The prosecutor said the defendants exchanged messages soon after Perry's death referencing ketamine as the cause of death. Estrada said they tried to cover up their involvement in supplying Perry ketamine, a powerful anesthetic that is sometimes used to treat chronic pain.
In May, Los Angeles Police told KTLA they were working with the DEA and U.S. Postal Inspection Service to determine how and why Perry had such a high level of ketamine in his system when he died.
Ketamine, a controlled but legal substance, is used in medical settings as an anesthetic and for treatment-resistant depression. It is known to have “some hallucinogenic effects,” according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and can be abused through injection, mixing a liquid or powder form with another liquid, or snorting or smoking the powder.
While ketamine was listed as the primary cause of Perry's October 2023 death, the medical examiner's office reported "drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects" as contributing factors. (Buprenorphine is used to treat opioid use disorder.) His death was deemed accidental, with no foul play suspected.
Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on “Friends,” when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation as Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit sitcom.
This is not the first case of someone facing charges following the overdose death of a celebrity. In 2022, a man was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to supplying counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills that were later sold to rapper Mac Miller before he died of an overdose in 2018. Two other people were also charged in Miller's death.
Also in 2022, a former public relations employee for the Los Angeles Angels was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison after he was convicted of conspiracy and distributing the drugs that led to the death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019. A coroner’s report said Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and that a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was in his system.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
