Luckin Coffee’s investigation finds no evidence of alleged misconduct by CEO

Luckin Coffee, Starbucks’ major rival in China, announced that it has completed an internal investigation into allegations against its chairman and CEO, Jinyi Guo, and found no evidence to substantiate the alleged misconduct.

Luckin Coffee chairman and CEO Jinyi Guo / Photo credit: Baidu Baike

In January this year, several middle and senior executives at the firm released a letter accusing Guo of corruption, abuse of power, and an incapacity to run the company. They also filed an appeal to remove him from his position.

Following the accusation, the board formed an independent panel and conducted an investigation into the allegations and the circumstances of the letter.

The firm said the investigation team interviewed nearly 40 individuals, both external parties and company personnel, including individuals who signed the petition letter. It also reviewed more than 50,000 transaction documents, company policies and procedures, emails, and other documents and records.

“The investigation team found no evidence substantiating misconduct by Guo as alleged in the petition letter, and has reported its findings to the company’s board,” wrote Luckin Coffee in a statement. “The investigation team did find during the investigation that certain members of the company’s former management participated in the planning of the petition letter.”

In July last year, the firm named Guo as its CEO and board chairman and ousted co-founder and chairman Charles Lu after the company confirmed that about US$300 million in revenue was fabricated in 2019. Luckin filed for bankruptcy protection in the US earlier this month.