PETALING JAYA, Nov 6 — It is "inexcusable” if American investment bank Goldman Sachs was complicit in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said.

Speaking to Bloomberg Television’s chief international correspondent Haslinda Amin in an exclusive interview, the PKR president-elect said the Malaysian government must get hold of every sen that has been taken out of the country by either government leaders or co-conspirators.

"They must understand that to be complicit to the excesses and crime, is inexcusable and in the process the country and the people suffer,” Anwar said in response to a question on whether he plans to meet with Goldman Sachs executives who were also attending the New Economy Forum in Singapore today.

Anwar said the bank must return nearly US$600 million (RM2.5 billion) in commission if it was prepared to negotiate but pointed out he had no intention to meet with any of the bank’s executives as investigations were ongoing.

During an interview titled ‘Malaysia’s quest for democratic accountability’, Anwar said 1MDB was a failure of governance by international financial institutions and the government that allowed corrupt individuals to squander as much as possible.

"When I was then Opposition leader, I brought up the issue of 1MDB in 2010 but I did not envisage at that time that this squandering of billions would go to this extent.

"And it is because of the entire failure of the system, the judiciary was compromised, the media was muted and enforcement agencies were on the payroll of the leadership.

"Worst of all, not that they were complicit to the crime but the financial institution that we depended upon were seemingly tolerant of the excesses,” he said.

On Thursday, The United States Department of Justice charged Goldman Sachs’ South-east Asia chairman Tim Leissner and fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, for allegedly misappropriating funds from 1MDB and paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials.

Leissner pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and to violating anti-bribery laws. He has been ordered to forfeit US$43.7 million (RM182.27 million) as a result of his crimes.