The Brazilian judge leading the nation’s largest-ever graft investigation on Friday alleged that the 14-year-old murder of a member of the ruling Workers’ Party may be connected to the corruption scandal.

Judge Sergio Moro, in documents released Friday as part of a new phase in the so-called Operation Car Wash, suggested that allegedly fraudulent loans obtained for Workers’ Party, or PT, may have been used to buy the silence of a person with knowledge relating to the death of Celso Daniel, one of the party’s founders.

...