Brazilian police on Monday arrested Antonio Palocci, a powerful former finance minister and presidential chief of staff in recent Workers Party governments, as a sweeping anti-corruption probe hit even harder at the left-leaning party, known by its acronym PT.

Prosecutors said at a news conference that Palocci acted as a liaison between the PT and Brazil's largest engineering and construction conglomerate, Odebrecht SA, from 2006 to 2013 in a kickback scheme centered on contracts at state-led oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.

"Evidence has surfaced ... that he was responsible for coordinating his political party's receipt of surreptitious payments from the Odebrecht Group," read Monday's search and arrest warrant signed by anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro.