Legal Charges in Matthew Perry’s Death Involve Two Doctors and ‘Ketamine Queen’

A web of greed-driven people – two doctors, a personal assistant, an acquaintance and a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” – conspired to supply Matthew Perry with the ketamine that led to his accidental death last year. But there was an overdose death, federal officials announced Thursday.

All five men have been charged in connection with Perry’s death. As his descent into ketamine addiction deepened last fall, they took advantage of the actor’s vulnerable state to enrich themselves, authorities said.

“They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing put Mr. Perry in great danger,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a news conference. “But they did it anyway. In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting from Mr. Perry than in caring about his well-being.

Perry, 54, was found face down in the hot end of a pool at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28, 2023. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office attributed his death to the acute effects of ketamine, an anesthetic with psychoactive properties.

According to an 18-count superseding indictment, the events leading to Perry’s death began in September 2023 when a Santa Monica doctor, Salvador Plasencia, learned that Perry wanted ketamine. Long known as a club drug, it is increasingly used to treat people with depression and other mental health problems but carries serious medical risks.

Placencia contacted another San Diego doctor, Mark Chavez, who owned a ketamine clinic. Soon the two physicians were discussing how much to charge Perry for the drug.

I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Placencia said in a text message to Chavez, according to the indictment. “Let’s find out.”

Placencia supplied Perry and his assistant, 59-year-old Kenneth Iwamasa, with ketamine. Placencia repeatedly injected Perry with the drug himself and instructed Iwamasa on how to do it, the indictment says.

“It was like a bad movie,” Placencia wrote in a text message to Chavez, the indictment states.

From September until Perry’s death in late October, doctors supplied him with about 20 vials of ketamine worth $55,000 in cash, federal prosecutors said.

In mid-October, Iwamasa sought an additional source of ketamine for his worried boss, the indictment said. He reached out to an acquaintance of Perry’s, Eric Fleming, who in turn reached out to a major underground seller known as the “Ketamine Queen”.

According to federal prosecutors, Jaswin Singha, a dual U.S. and British citizen living in North Hollywood, had been selling ketamine and other drugs for years.

She knew that ketamine could be deadly. In August 2019, a man overdosed on ketamine supplied by Singha, prosecutors said. After that, a member of the man’s family sent a message to the sangha. “The ketamine you sold my brother killed him,” he wrote. “That’s listed as the cause of death.”

According to prosecutors, Sangha then typed a question into Google: “Can ketamine be listed as a cause of death.”

The indictment says he began supplying Perry with drugs through Fleming, and that he coordinated sales with Iwamasa. According to the indictment, on Oct. 28, Iwamasa administered at least three shots of ketamine to Perry using syringes provided by Placencia.

The actor, best known for playing Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom “Friends,” was found unresponsive in his pool later that day.

“Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused his trust because they saw it as a paycheck,” Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram said at a news conference Thursday. Ended up with dealers who sold him ketamine in unmarked vials.”

Singha, 41, and Placencia, 42, were both arrested Thursday in Southern California. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Singha was also accused of several other drug-related offences.

After Perry’s death, federal agents and detectives searched Singha’s home. They found about 79 vials of ketamine, three pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine, hallucinogenic mushrooms and cocaine.

A lawyer for Sangha did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Singha was also arrested in March in a separate federal drug case in which he was accused of being a “large quantity drug dealer.” He was released from custody after posting a $100,000 bond, according to court records.

An attorney for Placencia, who operated a clinic in a strip mall in Calabasas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A local business owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of harassment, said he met Placencia briefly about two months ago after seeing a sign for weight-loss drugs at the clinic.

The business owner said Placencia offered him weight-loss drugs without consulting him. The local business owner refused. “I’m glad I didn’t,” he said.

Thursday afternoon, an advertisement for the weight-loss drug remained outside Palencia’s clinic but the front doors were closed. A handwritten note said urgent care would be closed for the day.

Iwamasa, Perry’s 59-year-old assistant, pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. According to prosecutors, he admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including on the day of the actor’s death.

Chavez, 54, of San Diego, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors, he admitted to selling ketamine to Placencia.