Developer Sergio Pino’s death by suicide on Tuesday — as federal agents descended on his home to arrest him — makes his estranded wife, Tatiana Pino, the sole owner of their development firm, Century Homebuilders Group, according to her attorney.
And just one day after Sergio’s death, his brother submitted a will, kicking off the probate process tied to the distribution of Sergio Pino’s assets.
On Tuesday morning, FBI agents arrived at Sergio’s waterfront Coral Gables estate to execute a search warrant and arrest Sergio Pino. Agents found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Federal investigators said that Pino orchestrated at least two murder-for-hire plots to try to have his estranged wife killed because she wanted half of their life estate, valued at up to $360 million during their divorce proceedings. Sergio Pino had offered her $20 million, according to July 17 criminal complaints against two men charged in the murder-for-hire plot.
Tatiana Pino filed for divorce two years ago, and in a deposition recorded in December she alleged that Sergio had been poisoning her with fentanyl and bath salts.
Sergio Pino was considered the largest Hispanic homebuilder in the country and an influential person in South Florida’s business community. His firm, Century Homebuilders Group, completed more than 16,000 houses since it was founded in 1995, according to its website.
Sergio and Tatiana Pino were the sole managers and owners of Coral Gables-based Century Homebuilders, records show. Tatiana’s attorney, Raymond Rafool of Rafool LLC, said Tatiana now owns Century Homebuilders.
“Century Homebuilders Group is moving forward as it has been and it will continue to move forward with Tatiana and her daughters and the current people that have been supporting her and standing behind her,” Rafool said.
On its website, Century Homebuilders lists about two dozen active communities in Homestead, unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Cutler Bay, Palmetto bay and Florida City. The company also has at least four communities in the planning stage. Earlier this year, Century Homebuilders Group and Treo Group partnered on the $10.5 million purchase of the 11.6-acre development site at 503 South Krome Avenue in Homestead.
Rafool said Tatiana Pino will keep the Coral Gables mansion the couple previously shared and anything else in her name. He said the divorce case will be dismissed.
On Wednesday, Sergio’s brother, Carlos Pino, submitted Sergio’s will, signed and dated in March of this year, naming Carlos his personal representative and trustee of his life estate. Sergio Pino had three children with Tatiana and one child from a previous marriage. All of the children are adults.
Carlos Pino leads Century Wholesale, which was founded in 1977 by Sergio and his father, Eugenio Pino as Century Plumbing, according to the company’s website.
Carlos Pino and his attorney, Sergio Mendez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, after Pino’s death, the FBI and U.S. Attorney revealed that Sergio Pino allegedly hired a second team of hitmen to murder Tatiana after the first crew failed. Sergio hired Fausto Villar, a convicted felon, to form the second hit team in late June, according to South Florida U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe and Jeffrey Veltri, special-agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Miami office.
Sergio Pino would pay $150,000 in the first disbursement, and another $150,000 if the murder did not tie back to Sergio. Tatiana would have to die before the hitmen would receive the next payment, Lapointe said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Lapointe said the FBI’s investigation “didn’t stop” Pino from pursuing his alleged plan to kill his wife. “That didn’t bother him at all,” Lapointe said.
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