Rome ? The pilot of the small plane that plowed into a Milan office tower was “desperate” over his finances because he allegedly was swindled out of $1.54 million by an associate, police and news reports said Saturday.

Police suggested pilot Luigi Fasulo’s desperation could have led him to commit suicide one of the theories being pursued as investigators try to determine the cause of Thursday’s crash in the heart of Italy’s financial center that killed three people, including Fasulo.

“We don’t exclude the hypothesis that he committed suicide over the scam of his economic ups and downs, which we are trying to shed light on,” a deputy chief of the Milan police, Giuseppe De Angelis, said in comments broadcast on national television Saturday.

The crash killed the 67-year-old Fasulo and two regional government lawyers.