It’s like an episode of Breaking Bad! Matthew Perry’s tragic drug-induced death has a surprising link to a fried chicken franchise.
But instead of Gustavo Fring’s fictional Los Pollos Hermanos chain, it’s the very real Kentucky Fried Chicken that addresses the Friends star’s untimely demise.
DailyMail.com has learned that the parents of “ketamine queen” Jasveen Sangha (who allegedly supplied the drugs that killed Perry) have been in legal trouble over their five KFC restaurants in California.
These were not legal issues of the magnitude that Fring was involved in, nor did they have anything to do with his daughter’s alleged affair.
But while Jasveen, 41, was said to be “cooking” ketamine Walter White-style in her kitchen, her mother Nilem and stepfather Ashok Sahadevan were involved in their own legally controversial culinary venture.
Jasveen Sangha’s mother, the “Ketamine Queen,” Nilem, faced legal trouble over five KFC franchises she and her ex-husband Ashok Sahadevan owned in California
Matthew Perry’s tragic drug-induced death has a surprising link to a fried chicken franchise. The Friends actor died of an overdose at his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
The couple ran a group of KFC franchises in California since 2008, but ended up being sued by both the state and Colonel Sanders’ Louisville chain for allegedly messing around with imprecise payments.
In AMC’s hit show Breaking Bad, soft-spoken drug kingpin Fring launders meth money through Los Pollos Hermanos before meeting a gruesome end when his arch-nemesis, the wheelchair-bound Hector Salamanca, blows him up.
Unlike the TV show, Nilem, 66, and Ashok, 67, have not been charged with any involvement in drug trafficking.
But that doesn’t mean they haven’t had their share of legal troubles.
Nilem and Ashok’s company, Tasty Birds Management, was hit with lawsuits in 2010 for failing to pay employees at a KFC location in Eureka for vacation time, overtime and lunch breaks.
California Department of Industrial Relations issued a decision in December That year, they demanded that the couple pay $12,000 to compensate the two employees.
In the same year the KFC Corporation He sued Nilem and Ashok in federal court for failure to pay royalties for his restaurants, two of which were in Eureka and the others in Barstow, Fortuna and Crescent City.
Giancarlo Esposito played soft-spoken drug lord Gustavo Fring, who hid his money-making scheme behind a fried chicken franchise called Los Pollos Hermanos, in both Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul.
Jasveen was said to be cooking ketamine in her North Hollywood home years after her mother, Navine, ran a KFC franchise group in California.
Kentucky Judge Joseph McKinley KFC was awarded a judgment of $52,526.65 in 2013, which increased to $62,877 in December 2015 with 10% interest, according to court documents.
Ashok avoided the debt by declaring bankruptcy before the case was over, leaving Nilem – who took Ashok’s surname, Sahadevan – to foot the entire sum.
Five people, including two doctors and his personal assistant, have been charged in connection with Perry’s death.
It is unclear whether the entire debt has been settled.
Ashok Bankruptcy Filings shows he left a long list of creditors in the lurch, including a $12,000 claim from the two chicken shop employees, $41,787 in back rent from one restaurant building and $15,229 from another, and $73,938 on three credit cards.
He even listed an $899,837 debt to Arcata Development Company for an “amount claimed for fraud and punitive damages in default judgment,” from a lawsuit involving a loan he took out to remodel a restaurant in 2009.
While Jasveen Sangha partied with celebrities, attended the Oscars, wore designer clothes and drove luxury cars according to friends, her mother and stepfather fell into increasingly precarious financial straits.
Ashok has struggled to stay on track in recent years, serving 30 days in Los Angeles County jail and 36 months of probation after a conviction for drunk driving and property damage in a hit-and-run in 2020.
Nilem currently lives in a four-bedroom home valued at $1.25 million in Tujunga owned by Ashok, which is now for sale after going into foreclosure in April.
Walter White frequently visited Los Pollos Hermanos, not always for the chicken.
Alleged drug dealer Jasveen Sangha was arrested in connection with the overdose death of Matthew Perry in early August 2024, along with several other suspects.
The KFC establishment formerly owned by the couple in Fortuna was the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Louisville, Kentucky-based corporation and the shell business Gustavo Fring used as a front for his drug operation.
The British-born mother also posted $100,000 bail for her daughter when Jasveen was… Arrested in March on drug charges after federal agents found a stash of thousands of pills, three pounds of methamphetamine, mushrooms, cocaine and dozens of vials of ketamine in his North Hollywood home.
Jasveen was arrested again this month when prosecutors announced nine more charges related to her alleged sale of ketamine that killed Perry. She is also implicated in the ketamine death of another victim, Cody McLaury, in 2019.
She now faces 10 years to life in federal prison if convicted of all 10 felony counts she is charged with. She has pleaded not guilty.
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