A judge, overseeing Brazil’s biggest corruption case, has died after the plane he was travelling in crashed off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

Teori Zavascki served as a rapporteur to the Supreme Court in the graft probe focused on the state-run oil company Petrobras, known as Operation Carwash.

Though no cause for the crash has been established, the timing has already raised suspicions of foul play as well as questions of who will take over the case.

Zavascki had been reviewing testimony from business executives which was expected to implicate hundreds of politicians in the kickback and bribery scandal.

The investigation has so far charged 200 people, and convicted 80 executives and politicians, while senior figures such as ex-president Lula da Silva and current leader Michel Temer have been implicated in the affair.