A video screen in New York's Times Square featured Luckin Coffee for its IPO. Credit: rblfmr, Shutterstock At the start of this year, Luckin Coffee was sitting pretty. On January 17, its Nasdaq-listed stock hit its all-time high — just above $51 per share — and its market capitalization passed $12 billion. The company also announced it had opened over 4,500 stores, overtaking Starbucks in China. The coffee startup, founded in 2017, was touted as tech-savvy with a business model that focused on pick-up and delivery and payments made primarily through its mobile app. But in January, an anonymous report — backed by several prominent short-sellers — alleged it had been fabricating its sales. Luckin’s stock price plunged to less than $5 before trading was halted on April 7. In this week’s edition of The Big Picture, we introduce readers to the people behind Luckin Coffee, the institutional investors who fell for Luckin’s inflated numbers, and the short-sellers who