KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has told a talk show he found it shocking that the parties involved in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal continued with their “spending spree” even after he exposed the matter in Parliament in 2010.

The PKR president said he told Parliament that he had gathered, based on audited accounts, that RM8 billion had been placed in the Cayman Islands, which he described as “absurd” as the money was from a sovereign fund.

However, instead of addressing the issue, Anwar claimed the parties allegedly involved had acted “viciously” against him and he thought that was one of the reasons he was imprisoned again.

“So, when I went back, I was sure you can’t hide, at that time the funds in the Cayman Islands were RM8 billion.

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“If former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib had been more responsible, he could have tried to resolve that at that stage, but he did not,” Anwar told streaming service iFlix’s Hot Ones Malaysia host Maya Karin.

Anwar also felt that had Najib acknowledged and taken adequate measures (regarding the issue), he could have saved himself and the country from the 1MDB scandal.

“I thought it wouldn’t go to this extent. I thought by exposing and by incessantly attacking them throughout the years, they would at least have been more cautious and Najib, Rosmah and the whole gang and Jho Low would have realised that look, you would be under the radar internationally and locally,” he said.

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Anwar was referring to the former prime minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and the alleged mastermind of the scandal whose given name is Low Taek Jho, who is now a fugitive.

Najib is facing numerous criminal charges over the 1MDB scandal.

The main trial on the scandal has yet to start as the former prime minister is currently facing charges over funds allegedly misappropriated from SRC International, a former unit of the state investment firm.