RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian police issued an arrest warrant Thursday for a businessman famous for amassing and then losing a multibillion-dollar fortune, the latest person caught up in a wide-ranging corruption probe roiling Latin America’s largest nation.

Federal police were working with Interpol to locate Eike Batista, who might be in New York. Batista’s lawyer Fernando Martins told the G1 news portal that his client was traveling and would surrender to police.

Batista is being sought for allegedly paying bribes to former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral, apparently to gain an advantage in government contracts.

Tacio Muzzi, an inspector with the federal police, told a news conference that if Batista doesn’t turn himself in soon, he will be considered a fugitive from justice. He did not give a specific deadline. He added that Batista appears to have used his German passport to leave Brazil.

Police learned overnight that Batista might be out of the country, Muzzi said, but decided to go ahead with attempting to execute the warrant. Globo Television showed images of police going to Batista’s home in Rio de Janeiro early Thursday.

Prosecutor Eduardo El Hage told reporters that Batista paid $16.5 million to Cabral in foreign bank accounts. Officials said Thursday that they were still investigating what the money was for.

Cabral is also facing several corruption charges and was jailed last year.

The warrant for Batista was one of nine issued Thursday in connection with an investigation into the money-laundering and the hiding of about $100 million in foreign bank accounts.

The vast majority of that money, nearly $80 million, belonged to Cabral, said prosecutor Leonardo Freitas. He held out the possibility that the conspiracy could be even larger.

‘‘The wealth of the members of the criminal organization led by Mr. Sergio Cabral is an ocean not yet completely mapped,’’ he told reporters.

Associated Press