Lu Zhengyao, chairman of scandal-ridden Luckin Coffee Inc., is likely to face criminal charges in China after authorities discovered emails in which he instructed colleagues to commit fraud, a source close to domestic regulators told Caixin.
China's top market watchdog and the Ministry of Finance have found evidence that Luckin, which is listed on the Nasdaq and seen as a domestic challenger to Starbucks Corp., paid taxes on bogus transactions, multiple people close to the company's internal investigation team told Caixin.