Director of the Moscow office of the Serbian architectural firm Centroprojekt. He and other company officials were investigated by Serbian authorities for financial crime on suspicion that they embezzled 6.5 million euros. The scheme, which ran from 2005 to 2008, involved falsifying documents in order to redirect payments destined for Centroprojekt - at the time a state-owned firm - to an identically-named private firm incorporated by the suspects.

Pihler told OCCRP’s partner KRIK that the funds in his Swiss account are savings that he legally earned in Russia, and were deposited into a Credit Suisse investment account in order to accrue income on his capital.