Putrajaya, Malaysia: A global anticorruption conference opened in Malaysia on Wednesday with a demand for the country’s Prime Minister Najib Razak to come clean on a raging financial scandal.

Razak has been under increasing pressure since The Wall Street Journal revealed in early July that Malaysian investigators had found nearly $700 million (Dh2.5 billion) in mysterious deposits into his personal bank accounts.

“There are two questions that need to be answered: Who paid the money and why? Where did it go? One man could answer those questions,” Jose Ugaz, global chair of Transparency International, told delegates in an opening speech.

Anger over the scandal brought tens of thousands of people to the streets of Kuala Lumpur and other cities over the weekend.

They demanded Razak’s removal and thorough reforms by Malaysia’s 58-year-old government, which is frequently hit by corruption scandals.

The three-day International Anti-Corruption Conference is organised by Transparency International and brings together graft-fighting agencies from around the world.

It is held this year in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative capital.

Razak was originally scheduled to give the keynote address, but was replaced by a low-ranking minister last week.

The minister, Paul Low, said earlier Wednesday that Razak stayed away to avoid facing hostile activists.

Even before the bank deposit revelations, Razak had for months faced demands to explain huge sums allegedly missing from deals involving a state-owned company he launched.

Najib initially denied The Wall Street Journal report, but government ministers later admitted the bank deposits occurred.

They called them “political donations” from Middle Eastern sources, but refused to give further details.

The government stoked further outrage with recent moves, including Razak’s sacking of Malaysia’s attorney-general and police raids on anti-graft officers probing the scandal, that have left investigations in doubt.

Razak denies wrongdoing, alleging a “political conspiracy”, and has refused to step down.

Drawing frequent applause from hundreds of delegates, Ugaz said Malaysia faced a “corruption crisis”.

He criticised the disruptions to the investigations and the government’s recent shutdown of two Malaysian newspapers for their reporting on the scandals.

“These are not the actions of a government that is fighting corruption,” Ugaz said.