Matthew Perry’s live-in assistant has pleaded guilty to giving the late Friends star the ketamine that caused his death, prosecutors announced on Thursday.
Iwamasa now faces up to 15 years in prison, after a bust that also led to charges of four other defendants including a Los Angeles doctor who supplied the deadly drug to Perry.
Last November DailyMail.com revealed that Iwamasa had been living with Perry and working as his assistant up until his death.
The Department of Justice said Iwamasa injected Perry with ketamine the day he died, on October 28 2023.
California prosecutors announced on Thursday that Iwamasa, 59, of Toluca Lake, pleaded guilty on August 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.
The assistant ‘admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing multiple injections on Perry on October 28, 2023 – the day Perry died,’ the DoJ said.
Matthew Perry had a live-in assistant and caretaker, 59-year-oldKenny Iwamasa (pictured together in August) admits to giving the late Friends star the ketamine that caused his death. He ‘admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing multiple injections on Perry on October 28, 2023 – the day Perry died,’ the DoJ said
Perry had moved back into his newly refurbished home and was enjoying his hot tub when he died suddenly on October 28
They also charged Jasveen Sangha, 41, who they labeled the ‘Ketamine Queen’ of North Hollywood; Santa Monica doctor Salvador Plasencia, 42; Eric Fleming, 54, of Hawthorne; and Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego.
Police obtained text messages between the two doctors plotting to sell ketamine to Perry, saying: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’ and ‘Lets find out’.
Plasencia is charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
According to his LinkedIn account, Iwamasa had helped handle Perry's affairs for more than 25 years
Sangha, a dual British/US citizen, is charged with a slew of crimes including one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent to distribute ketamine, and seven counts of distribution of ketamine, and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.
Fleming admitted he distributed the ketamine that killed Perry, and pleaded guilty on August 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
Fleming admitted to getting 25 vials of ketamine from Sangha and giving them to the assistant Iwamasa four days before Perry’s death.
Prosecutors said Dr Chavez agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, admitting he sold the drug to Plasencia, and got supplies of it ‘by making false representations to a wholesale ketamine distributor and by submitting a fraudulent prescription in the name of a former patient without that patient’s knowledge or consent.’
Just two months before his shock passing and a few days after his 54th birthday, Perry and Iwamasa were seen shopping at the Nike store at The Grove in LA
DailyMail.com can reveal the Friends star and Iwamasa had been living in a $49,000-a-month Beverly Hills property for a little over a year while his Pacific Palisades pad underwent renovations
Perrylived in a Beverly Hills hideaway with Iwamasa until just a couple of weeks before his untimely death, DailyMail.com can reveal.
And it is he who, sources close to the star believe, discovered Perry's lifeless body in the hot tub at his newly refurbishedhouse on October 28.
The actor had been renting a three-bed hillside home overlooking Beverly Hills and the ocean for $49,000 per month for more than a year while his $6million Pacific Palisades house was undergoing renovation.
He was living in the rental with Iwamasa, an executive assistant who helped manage Perry's affairs for more than 25 years.
The house's landlord, John Malakzad, identified Iwamasa as 'an individual living with Perry and monitoring him'.
Iwamasa had been pictured driving Perry, 54, around Los Angeles on errands and emerging from the Beverly Hills home in the morning, photographs exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com revealed.
The Friends actor had moved back in to enjoy his refurbished Pacific Palisades house less than a month before he was found dead, by a 'personal assistant'.
As his live-in PA, Iwamasa is believed to be the one to find his body.
Earlier this year in February, Perry was spotted outside the Beverly Hills property as he had furniture delivered to the secret hideaway
The actor had been spotted at the home regularly since October 2022
Aerial images show Perry's pool and the hot tub at his $6million Pacific Palisades home where he was found dead late last month aged 54
Iwamasa, wrote on his LinkedIn page that he worked as an 'executive assistant' employed by Perry's manager Doug Chapin.
Among his roles he lists: 'Executive Assistant to personal manager responsibilities for 25 years (on-going) for client Matthew Perry ('Friends'; actor-writer-producer).'
'I thrive in chaotic situations which call for order,' he adds. 'I am discreet, loyal and honor absolute confidentiality.
'I love deadlines, contracts, dotting i's and solving puzzling situations and projects.'
Just two months before his unexpected death, and days after his 54th birthday, Perry and Iwamasa had been seen shopping together at The Grove in LA, DailyMail.com reported at the time.
One of Iwamasa's family members who lives in Los Angeles confirmed to DailyMail.com that the assistant had been living with Perry in recent months, though the relative had not spoken to Iwamasa since the actor's death.
In Perry's last post on Instagram he was pictured making the most of the hot tub that overlooks his coastal neighborhood during a moonlit night on October 23, five days before his death.
'Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good?' he captioned the post.
Perry’s autopsy report listed ‘the acute effects of ketamine’ as his cause of death.
The report said he had high levels of the tranquilizer drug in his blood, likely fell unconscious and slipped underwater in his jacuzzi.
‘Contributing factors in Mr. Perry’s death include drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder),’ the Los Angeles Medical Examiner said in a statement. ‘The manner of death is accident.’
First responders on the scene revealed that when Perry was found by his assistant, he was underwater. The assistant lifted his head up in a desperate attempt to get him some air.
By the time the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived at his Pacific Palisades home, the actor was already dead, it was later determined.
It comes after a 15-second dispatch call emerged revealing the moment his assistant called 911 to report a possible cardiac arrest.
Perry had been open about his past struggles with alcohol and substance abuse, but said in recent interviews he was clean and sober.
Perry wrote in his memoir, published last year, that he had spent $9million trying to get sober, revealing he had been to 6,000 AA meetings, gone to rehab 15 times, and been in detox 65 times.
First responders reportedly found antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications at the property – but there was no sign of any illegal drugs.
