Luckin Coffee ousts co-founder Charles Lu, names new CEO

Luckin Coffee has named a new CEO and board chairman after ousting co-founder and chairman Charles Lu following a board meeting on Sunday.

Jinyi Guo, who was formerly acting CEO, will replace Lu and lead the company as its new CEO.

Photo credit: Luckin Coffee

Aside from Lu, the company has also removed three other board directors – David Hui Li, Erhai Liu, and Sean Shao – and appointed two new independent directors.

Earlier this month, the company said that about US$300 million in revenue was fabricated last year, its internal investigation found. It then terminated former CEO Jenny Qian and ex-chief operating officer Jian Liu from the board as well as some 12 employees involved in the fraudulent transactions.

Lu’s resignation from the board was also proposed. The co-founder, however, managed to stay on as chairman, as the attempt failed to get enough votes.

See also: The instant rise and fall of Luckin Coffee

Founded in 2017, Luckin said it was operating over 4,000 stores across China as of the end of last year. But its shares and market value dipped after the company announced an internal probe into the fabricated transactions. Last month, its shares were delisted from Nasdaq after Luckin received two delisting notices from the exchange amid the investigation.

Earlier in June, Lu also stepped down as chairman of Car Inc., the car rental firm he founded, amid the Luckin scandal.