Among the five individuals arrested in connection with the Matthew Perry overdose investigation were a local doctor and the actor’s live-in assistant. Another person involved was Erik Fleming, identified as a TV star’s “acquaintance,” who faced charges as a go-between in the fatal ketamine plot.
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| Matthew Perry Michael Kovac/FilmMagic |
The Department of Justice portrayed Fleming as a drug dealer, working with Perry’s assistant and Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen.”
The DOJ stated that “after discussing prices with [co-defendant Kenneth] Iwamasa, Fleming arranged the drug sales with Sangha and delivered cash from Iwamasa to Sangha’s stash house in North Hollywood to purchase ketamine vials.”
On October 24, 2023, four days before Perry’s death, Fleming informed the assistant that the ketamine was “on its way to our girl,” referring to Sangha.
Fleming, 54, pled guilty on August 8 to charges of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death. He admitted to distributing 50 vials of ketamine, with half of them distributed four days before Perry’s death. In his federal case, Fleming faces a potential sentence of up to 25 years.
Fleming did not respond to The Morfeli Reporter’s request for comment.
Although Fleming is listed in the DOJ filing as being “of Hawthorne,” he once had a more prominent presence in Hollywood. He was a director—Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes starred in his 1999 children’s fantasy comedy My Brother the Pig—and he produced the first season of the reality show The Surreal Life in 2003, which featured Cory Feldman, Gabrielle Carteris, Vince Neil, and MC Hammer.
Fleming also directed and produced Tyrone, a 1999 road trip film starring Coolio and Kevin Connolly, who later became famous for Entourage.
Fleming also co-managed the production company Rich Hippie with Sydney Holland, one of Sumner Redstone’s two live-in girlfriends who ultimately received tens of millions of dollars before his death. Holland’s legal maneuvers contributed to the ViacomCBS merger and, arguably, to Paramount Global’s more recent challenges. (She has since moved to San Diego.)
The ailing media mogul reportedly funded Rich Hippie with an unspecified amount, according to a 2016 Redstone legal complaint. Fleming was appointed president of production in 2013.
“With his creative vision, experience, and extensive contacts,” Holland, then CEO, told Morfeli at the time, “he is incredibly capable of executing our mission to develop and produce thoughtful and entertaining, quality projects that appeal to a broad range of audiences.”
Despite this, Rich Hippie did not produce many such projects. Its most notable announced project, a film about a Native American community’s struggle with drug culture, which they executive produced alongside Natalie Portman, had a minimal theatrical release and a meager box office return.
