Litigation Release No. 24987 / December 16, 2020
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Luckin Coffee Inc., No. 1:20-cv-10631 (S.D.N.Y. filed Dec. 16, 2020)
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged China-based company Luckin Coffee Inc. with defrauding investors by materially misstating the company's revenue, expenses, and net operating loss in an effort to falsely appear to achieve rapid growth and increased profitability and to meet the company's earnings estimates. Luckin, whose American Depositary Shares traded on the NASDAQ until July 13, 2020, has agreed to pay a $180 million penalty to resolve the charges.
The SEC's complaint alleges that, from at least April 2019 through January 2020, Luckin intentionally fabricated more than $300 million in retail sales by using related parties to create false sales transactions through three separate purchasing schemes. According to the complaint, certain Luckin employees attempted to conceal the fraud by inflating the company's expenses by more than $190 million, creating a fake operations database, and altering accounting and bank records to reflect the false sales.