Luckin Coffee has revealed that an internal investigation found hundreds of millions of dollars of sales last year were “fabricated”, wiping almost 75% from the value of the company touted as China’s rival to Starbucks, reported the Financial Times.
The coffee chain, which listed on Wall Street less than a year ago, put investors on notice that they should no longer rely on previous financial statements that have appeared to show exceptionally rapid growth.
The company’s chief operating officer has been suspended after a special committee was formed to investigate its accounts and the initial findings were delivered to the board.
Early stages of the investigation indicated that the “aggregate sales amount associated with the fabricated transactions from the second quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2019 amount to around RMB 2.2 billion” ($310 million).