Erik Fleming, a licensed drug addiction counselor who sold the ketamine that killed actor Matthew Perry, was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison in Los Angeles, a punishment that caps one of the most disturbing chapters in a case that exposed a network of dealers and doctors willing to exploit a celebrity's addiction for profit.
Fleming, 56, pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious injury. His sentence also includes three years of supervised release and a $200 special assessment fee, as reported by UPI.
He is the fourth of five defendants sentenced in the federal prosecution stemming from Perry's death on Oct. 28, 2023. The beloved "Friends" star, who played Chandler Bing, was found dead at age 54. An autopsy determined his death was caused by "the acute effects of ketamine," with contributing factors of drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, an opioid.
Court documents paint a grim picture of how Fleming operated. He was an acquaintance of Perry's who learned the actor was looking for ketamine. Rather than steer a struggling addict away from the drug, which was, at least nominally, his professional obligation, Fleming connected Perry to Jasveen Sangha, a drug dealer prosecutors have called "the Ketamine Queen."
Fleming obtained 51 vials of ketamine from Sangha and sold them to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry's live-in assistant. Iwamasa then injected Perry with at least three shots of the drug, court documents stated.
The Washington Times reported that Fleming delivered 25 vials to Iwamasa for $6,000 just four days before Perry's death. Prosecutors had sought two and a half years in prison, while Fleming's defense team asked for three months behind bars and nine months in residential drug treatment.
The judge settled closer to the prosecution's request. Two years.
Fleming addressed the court before sentencing. NBC News reported that he told the judge he is "haunted" by his mistakes. AP News reported Fleming's fuller remarks:
"It's truly a nightmare I can't wake up from. I'm haunted by the mistakes I made."
He also said he was "mortified" by his role in Perry's death.
"If there was a way to bring [Perry] back, I would have done it. I'm mortified I played any role in the death of another person, especially someone as beloved as Mr. Perry."
In a letter to the court before sentencing, Fleming offered a blunter admission of motive, as the Washington Times reported:
"I procured ketamine for Matthew Perry because I wanted the money and because I thought I was doing a favor for a friend. I never contemplated the worst possible outcome. This grievous failure will haunt me forever."
Wanted the money. Thought he was doing a favor. That combination, greed dressed up as friendship, is a recurring theme in cases where drug trafficking leads to serious federal prison time.
Fleming did not act alone. The federal investigation uncovered a ring of five people who facilitated Perry's access to ketamine, each playing a distinct role in a supply chain that moved the drug from a dealer's stash to an actor's bloodstream.
Sangha, the supplier, received the heaviest sentence. She was sentenced in April to 15 years in federal prison. Perry's stepfather, Keith Morrison, addressed her directly in court. The New York Post reported his words:
"I feel bad for you, Miss Sangha. I don't hate you.... You are a drug dealer."
Two doctors were also sentenced in December. Dr. Salvador Plasencia received 30 months in prison. Dr. Mark Chavez was sentenced to three years of supervised release, the New York Post reported he received eight months of home confinement as part of his terms.
The contempt some of these defendants showed for Perry is striking. Newsmax reported that one of the doctors involved openly mused, according to prosecutors: "I wonder how much this moron will pay." That is the voice of someone who saw a vulnerable man not as a patient but as a mark.
Iwamasa, Perry's assistant who allegedly administered the fatal injections, is the last defendant awaiting sentencing. His hearing is expected later in May.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yaniello told the court in Los Angeles that "there was overwhelming evidence that Mr. Fleming provided the drugs that caused Mr. Perry's death," Newsmax reported. Fleming's cooperation with investigators reportedly helped advance the broader prosecution, which may explain why his sentence fell below the two-and-a-half-year mark prosecutors initially sought.
Still, cooperation does not erase the core fact. A man licensed to help addicts recover instead helped one of the most famous addicts in America obtain the drug that killed him. Fleming held a position of trust, a credential that exists precisely because addiction is a vulnerability that demands professional integrity.
That a licensed counselor would exploit that trust for cash is a failure that goes beyond one man's crime. It raises hard questions about oversight of addiction treatment professionals and the ease with which credentials can coexist with criminal conduct. Those questions remain largely unanswered as the case wraps up.
The broader federal effort to hold drug networks accountable has produced results in other high-profile cases as well. The FBI's recent nationwide sweep targeting predators and drug operations shows what happens when federal law enforcement treats these supply chains seriously.
Perry's death in October 2023 shocked millions who grew up watching "Friends." It also laid bare a reality that celebrity and wealth do not protect anyone from the predatory ecosystem that surrounds addiction. If anything, fame made Perry a bigger target.
Five people pleaded guilty. Four have been sentenced. The sentences range from supervised release for Dr. Chavez to 15 years for Sangha. Fleming's two years falls in the middle, lighter than what the dealer and one doctor received, heavier than supervised release alone.
Whether these sentences are proportionate to the harm done is a question Perry's family and fans will answer differently than the defendants' lawyers. What is not in dispute is the chain of events: a counselor connected an addict to a dealer, marked up the price, delivered the product, and a man died in his home at 54.
Accountability in high-profile criminal cases matters not just for the victims involved but for the signal it sends. When professionals entrusted with helping the vulnerable instead profit from their suffering, the justice system's response tells the next would-be enabler what the cost will be.
Iwamasa's sentencing later this month will close the book on the criminal case. But the broader lesson is already clear enough.
When the people paid to help you get clean are the same ones selling you the drugs, the system has a problem no sentencing guideline can fully fix. And the person who pays the highest price is always the one who trusted them.
