A Taiwanese lawmaker's family is now on trial over an alleged decade-long scheme to pocket public money, and the siblings are refusing to admit the most serious charge.

• Independent legislator Kao Chin Su-mei is accused of using relatives as fake staff to claim assistant salaries and parental allowances from parliament, totaling more than NT$7.8 million between 2008 and 2018.
• Her sister and brother both appeared in Taipei District Court and denied corruption, the charge carrying the heaviest penalty.
• The sister said she never picked staff or filed the paperwork; the brother admitted forging documents by drawing pay under his ex-wife's name, but insisted he actually did the work.
• Kao Chin also faces charges over importing tens of thousands of unapproved Chinese Covid test kits under a personal-use exemption, then handing them out to others.
• A former aide is separately accused of taking more than NT$16 million in event grants from state-owned firms and government bodies, then never holding the events.

Outlook: Kao Chin's own court date has been pushed from early September to late October after her lawyer asked for a delay.