Criminal charges have been filed against five people in connection with the death of Friends star Matthew Perry nearly a year ago, US law enforcement officials have said.
The US actor died from an accidental ketamine overdose last year.
The defendants include two doctors and an assistant to Perry who were part of "a broad underground criminal network" that distributed large quantities of the prescription drug ketamine to the actor and others, US Attorney Martin Estrada said.
"These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves," Mr Estrada said at a news conference in Los Angeles.
"They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr Perry, but they did it anyway. In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr Perry than caring for his well-being," he added.
One of the doctors, Salvador Plasencia, faces up to 120 years in federal prison, Mr Estrada said.
Los Angeles police said in May they were working with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Postal Inspection Service with a probe into why the 54-year-old had so much of the surgical anaesthetic in his system.
An assistant found Perry face down in his hot tub on 28 October, and paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead.
The actor's autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anaesthesia during surgery.
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The decades-old drug has seen a huge surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain.
People close to Perry, who played Chandler Bing in Friends, told coroner’s investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy.
But the medical examiner said Perry’s last treatment one-and-a-half weeks earlier would not explain the levels of ketamine in his blood.
The drug is typically metabolised in a matter of hours.
At least two doctors were treating Perry, a psychiatrist and an anaesthesiologist who served as his primary care physician, the medical examiner’s report said.
No illicit drugs or paraphernalia were found at his house.
Ketamine was listed as the primary cause of death, which was ruled an accident with no foul play suspected, the report said.
Drowning and other medical issues were contributing factors, the coroner said.
Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s hit sitcom.
Additional reporting PA
