FILE - In this May 18, 2019, file photo, customers sit inside a Luckin Coffee shop at a shopping center in Beijing. Chinas Luckin Coffee has agreed to pay a $180 million penalty to settle accounting fraud charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission says Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)China’s Luckin Coffee has agreed to pay a $180 million penalty to settle accounting fraud charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission says. The Chinese rival to Starbucks fabricated more than $300 million in retail sales, the SEC said in a statement. The SEC said some Luckin employees tried to hide the fraud by logging inflated expenses and entering false information in the company’s accounts.