Senior aide indicted in lawmaker's corruption case jumps bail

Taipei, Sept. 7 (CNA) The Taipei District Court has issued an arrest warrant for a man indicted in a corruption case involving independent Legislator Kao Chin Su-mei (高金素梅), after he jumped bail late Sunday.

In a statement issued Monday, the court said judicial police had responded late Sunday after an electronic wrist monitor belonging to Chang Chun-chieh (張俊傑), Kao Chin's former legislative office director, issued a low-battery alert.

Police responding to the alert were unable to locate Chang but recovered his wrist monitor, which had been "broken and thrown away," the court said.

After notifying immigration authorities, the court issued an arrest warrant for Chang on Monday.

Kao Chin Su-mei corruption case

Kao Chin, Chang and 22 others were indicted June 8 on corruption and fraud-related charges related to the embezzlement of public funds and the importation of unapproved COVID-19 test kits from China.

Kao Chin, who has denied wrongdoing, was accused of fraudulently obtaining more than NT$7.87 million (US$248,866) in public funds through fraudulent claims for legislative assistant salaries, bonuses, overtime pay and childcare subsidies.

This included registering several individuals, including her siblings, as legislative assistants, despite them not actually performing any duties, prosecutors alleged.

Chang, meanwhile, was accused of conspiring with Kao Chin to fraudulently obtain funds earmarked for assistant salaries, as well as using an Indigenous cultural association to fraudulently obtain over NT$9.33 million from government agencies and state-owned enterprises.

Prosecutors said that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, Kao Chin also authorized Chang to enlist others to illegally import 74,400 unapproved rapid test kits from China, circumventing medical device regulations.

Kao Chin, however, has claimed that the rapid test kits were intended to help Indigenous communities amid a shortage of the devices in Taiwan.

In the indictment, prosecutors recommended a sentence of at least 16 years for Chang and 12.5 years for Kao Chin.

Chang, who was held in incommunicado detention for nearly four months before his indictment, was released on NT$10 million bail in June.

At the time, Chang's lawyers sought his release on health grounds, noting that he was over 70 years old and battling lung cancer.

During the first day of his trial on Sept. 1, Chang denied the corruption charges but admitted to other offenses, such as document forgery. He argued that he was not merely a legislative aide in name only, but had actually performed his duties and lacked criminal intent.