TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An investigation into alleged embezzlement of legislative aide payments by DPP Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) expanded Saturday with prosecutors requesting the detention of five staff members from two of her offices.

Investigators raided the offices in the Kaohsiung districts of Linyuan and Daliao and the homes of the employees on Friday, after Lin faced more than an hour of questioning at the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office on Wednesday, per CNA. The five staffers are suspected of involvement in corruption, so they should be detained to prevent collusion and the destruction of evidence, prosecutors argued.

They will also have to decide whether to ask a court to extend the detention of a temple abbot, Lin’s brother and sister-in-law, and a bookkeeper allegedly involved in the case. The legislator herself has denied the corruption accusations, and was freed on bail of NT$1 million (US$30,800) in February.

Lin, 52, had been a frontrunner in the race to succeed Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), with elections expected at the end of 2026.