A central defendant in the Taiwanese corruption case against independent lawmaker Kao Chin Su-mei has cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and disappeared, a setback for prosecutors just weeks before she is due in court.

• Chang Chun-chieh, her office director, destroyed his ankle monitor late Sunday and vanished; the Taipei District Court has put him on the wanted list.
• He is the case's most important link — accused of helping fake staff-salary claims and of pulling in more than NT$9 million in fraudulent government and state-firm grants through a cultural association.
• Prosecutors want 16-plus years for him and 12 and a half years for Kao Chin, and had asked to keep him locked up because they feared he would run; the court let him out on bail instead.
• Over the past two weeks a string of her aides, her nephew, a local council chair, and her brother admitted wrongdoing in court, mostly to bargain for suspended sentences.
• Her own hearing is set for late October, and much of the testimony against her runs through the man who is now missing.

Outlook: The manhunt will dominate the case in the coming weeks, and his absence weakens the evidence chain right as the trial reaches Kao Chin herself.