The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed fraud charges against a California biotech company for making wild claims about a new rapid test for COVID-19 that, in truth, never existed.

The complaint alleges that  the firm, Decision Diagnostics Corp, "went on a publicity blitz" in March, claiming that it had developed a test that could detect COVID-19 in less than a minute with just a finger prick. The problem, said the SEC, was that the company did not have such a product and, in fact, its own advisers warned that the testing kit they were trying to make would not work as described. Investors, unaware that no such test existed, poured money into the company, making the firm's share price and sales volume surge forward.