When she was still a hardworking schoolgirl with a bright future, Jasveen Sangha had some good advice for her fellow students at Calabasas High School.
“It’s not what they say about you, it’s what they whisper,” the British-born teenager wrote in the California school’s 2001 yearbook, quoting Hollywood actor Errol Flynn.
She added another cheesy line, this time taken from Italian director Luciano De Crescezno: ‘We are all angels with only one wing. We can only fly by embracing each other.’
Who would have believed that the rather dull teenager who smiled quietly next to her classmates more than two decades ago would grow up to be the so-called Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles, the 41-year-old woman accused of supplying Friends star Matthew Perry with the lethal dose of drugs that took his life last October?
Sangha is one of five people charged in connection with Perry’s 54-year-old ketamine death, including his personal assistant and two physicians. She was charged Aug. 15 with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, maintaining a drug house, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute ketamine and five counts of distribution of ketamine.
If found guilty, she could face life in prison. How on earth could the daughter of a doctor, born into a respectable British Sikh family from Loughton in Essex, become involved in the sordid death of one of the world’s most famous TV actors and allegedly be part of a “wide criminal network” that supplied drugs to celebrities – a network that many fear she could now expose?
British-born Jasveen Sangha is one of five people charged with involvement in the ketamine-fuelled death of 54-year-old Matthew Perry
Her transformation from college student to affluent lifestyler, whose appearance has been transformed by blonde hair dye, blue contact lenses and, colleagues say, the nose job so beloved by so many California women, is chronicled in her social media posts.
Many of the photos on her Instagram account also feature her 66-year-old British mother Nilem, who has been married three times. She used to run KFC restaurants in California, but was taken to court by the fast-food giant about a decade ago.
Jasveen’s flamboyant uncle, Paul Singh, 64, a former business partner of the late British nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow, is also often photographed with his niece at Los Angeles clubs.
There is no evidence that any of the family members are involved in the crimes Sangha is accused of.
This week, an investigation by the Mail has exposed Sangha’s past in both the UK and the US.
Her North Hollywood home, prosecutors said in court last week, was even known as the “Sangha Stash House” and was used to “store, package, and distribute narcotics.” More, in a moment, on the exact allegations leveled against Sangha in court in connection with Perry’s hot tub death at his Pacific Palisades home.
Last week she pleaded not guilty to the charges, but a judge denied bail, calling her a “flight risk.”
All in all, a bewildering turn of events for a woman born in Essex in July 1983.
Jasveen’s mother, Nilem, also born in Ilford, was the daughter of a hosiery wholesaler who set up a fashion business with showrooms in London. Her first marriage, at the age of 24, in 1982 to a doctor was short-lived but produced Jasveen.
In 1986, she married again and changed her daughter’s name to that of her second husband, Dr. Ajmel Sangha.
The family moved to California with Jasveen’s maternal grandparents, settling in Tujunga in northwest Los Angeles.
Jasveen’s mother Nilem divorced and remarried.
Jasveen was sent to school in nearby Calabasas, one of LA’s wealthiest neighborhoods, an area made famous by the Kardashians on reality TV. This was the glitzy world Jasveen Sangha stepped into as an impressionable young girl.
Who would have believed that the rather boring teenager would grow up to be the so-called Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles?
She was a member of the CSF (The California Scholarship Federation), an academic organization that promotes the academic achievement and community involvement of students.
No one was surprised when she got into UC Irvine, one of the top public universities in the US.
At home, life was a lot more turbulent for Sangha’s family.
With her third husband, Ashok Sahadevan, Sangha’s mother Nilem ran a group of KFC fast food franchises in California through a company called Tasty Birds Management. They were sued by both employees and the takeout chain for failure to pay wages and royalties for use of the KFC logo.
In December 2010, the California Department of Labor Relations issued a decision requiring the couple to pay $12,000 to the employees.
In 2013, a judge ordered the couple to pay KFC $52,526.65, a figure that had increased to $62,877 by 2015.
Nilem’s husband filed for bankruptcy before the case was finalized, leaving Nilem to pay the entire amount. It’s unclear if she ever paid the amount owed, but the family’s four-bedroom, $1,250,000 home is for sale.
Against the backdrop of this turmoil, Jasveen returned to the UK in 2010 on her British passport and pursued an MBA at Hult Business School in London.
Old friends say she was a different woman when she returned to LA.
She looked “completely different than she did when she was in high school,” a former colleague told the New York Post this week.
“It looked like she had a nose job and maybe other things done to her face.”
Back in LA, Jasveen tried to start her own business, opening a nail salon called Stiletto Nail Bar. The business was a flop, and she and her business partner were sued for non-payment of rent two years after opening.
According to contemporaries, it was around this time that the life of Sangha seemed to become distinct from theirs.
Matthew Perry in search of clothes in 2023
While many of them settled down, she ‘partied a lot and was excessive on the weekends’.
She dated a serious boyfriend for a while, but their breakup around 2014 signaled a change in her character. A male friend who spoke to the New York Post this week attributed her move into the party world to loneliness.
Was Sangha’s head turned by the rich crowd she associated with?
She dyed her hair blonde, began wearing heavy makeup, and began dressing in designer clothes. She developed a taste for flashy Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry and clothes by Versace, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel.
She also established herself as a party planner for the rich and famous, under the name ‘Jazzy Productions’, and began performing at Golden Globe and Oscar events.
“She built up a lot of connections and hung out with a group of girls,” the friend said.
One of them was Perla Hudson, who was married to Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash until 2018.
Photos show Sangha and Hudson next to a private jet and at an event at Sotheby’s in Beverly Hills. She was also photographed with her mother and uncle, alongside actor Charlie Sheen, who has been in and out of drug rehab for years.
The photo appeared on her uncle Paul’s Instagram page with the caption: ‘It’s always a family affair when we do it’.
The friend who spoke to the New York Post this week said Sangha would throw parties at her North Hollywood apartment. “I’ve never been to a party at Jasveen’s where drugs were unusual. She had access to drugs and it started to look like a viable option. She could get liquid ketamine.”
It seems that Sangha’s life was in stark contrast to that of her former stepfather, Dr. Ajmel Sangha, who gave her his surname as a child.
As Chief Medical Officer for California Correctional Health Care Services, Dr. Sangha devotes his time to helping inmates get off drugs and reducing deaths. In the past, he has had the heartbreaking task of informing family members that their loved ones have died in prison from an overdose.
“I always thought, what a waste, what a waste of my life,” he said in an interview with a CCHCS internal magazine.
Under his leadership, hospitalizations for overdoses in prison dropped by 50 percent. He said much of his success came from important conversations.
“Do you listen to your patients? Do you treat them with the dignity and respect that they deserve, that everyone deserves?”
When the Mail spoke to Dr Sangha this week, he said simply: ‘She is not my daughter.’
US website TMZ claims that Sangha met Matthew Perry, who had struggled with drug addiction for decades, in rehab. She later called him ‘Chandler’, the name of his Friends character.
Just two weeks after Perry’s death in October last year, she was enjoying lychee martinis at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Tokyo, where suites cost £1,500 a night.
In February they travelled to London with her mother. It is believed the family still own property in Loughton.
Back in LA, Sangha was arrested in March on drug charges after federal agents found a stash of thousands of pills, three pounds of methamphetamine, magic mushrooms, cocaine and vials of ketamine in her home.
Her mother then posted a $100,000 bail.
Sangha appeared unfazed by the charges. Just hours before she was arrested again by LA police on August 15 in connection with Perry’s death, she showed off a new hairdo on social media.
She has also been linked to the 2019 death of another victim, Cody McLaury.
She has denied guilt to the charges against her, but her bail has been revoked and she is currently in custody.
“Hollywood stars should be trembling with fear,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said this week, after warning that Sangha might try to cut a deal and get a lighter sentence by releasing the names of some of her celebrity clients.
“Anyone who has anything to do with Jasveen Sangha should be really worried right now.”
Legal sources believe she holds the key to revealing who is doing business and buying in Hollywood if she settles.
Mr Rahmani added: ‘There is overwhelming evidence against her. She is in a world of pain right now.’
While this story is far from over, what an extraordinary situation for a woman born in a small town in Essex and whose family moved to the US in search of a better life.
