China's Luckin Coffee faked $310m in sales, in-house probe finds

Nasdaq-listed shares plunge 76%, costing Wall Street investors millions

A Luckin Coffee executive photographs a cup during the company's initial public offering at the Nasdaq Market in May 2019. © Reuters

ALEX FANG, Nikkei staff writer, and NARAYANAN SOMASUNDARAM, Nikkei Asian Review chief banking and financial correspondent

April 3, 2020 06:08 JST

Updated on April 3, 2020 13:20 JST

NEW YORK/HONG KONG -- Luckin Coffee, the homegrown Chinese chain seemingly on a meteoric rise to challenge Starbucks, fabricated sales totaling 2.2 billion yuan ($310 million) over the last three quarters of 2019, an ongoing internal probe has found.

The Nasdaq-listed company said in a release Thursday that investors "should no longer rely upon" its previous financial statements covering those quarters.