(Daily Mail) - A millionaire real estate mogul who shot himself dead as cops raided his mansion paid two hit squads to kill his estranged wife, the FBI has said.
Sergio Pino, 67, took his own life inside his $7.9million marina-side home in Coral Gables, Miami, on Tuesday as federal agents closed in.
The FBI SWAT team was there to arrest him for paying assassins to kill Tatiana Pino, 55, during their bitter divorce battle, but he wouldn't let them take him alive.
Hitmen poisoned Tatiana with fentanyl, threatened their daughter at gunpoint, tried her run her own on the road or burn down her sister's home.
Nine other people were arrested after allegedly accepting contracts for as much as $300,000 to murder Tatiana and make sure Pino couldn't be blamed.
Markenzy Lapointe, US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, detailed the murder-for-hire plot on Wednesday after Pino's suicide.
'This case is about a husband, Mr Pino, who decided after years of marriage that he was going to kill his wife,' he said.
Pino's efforts began after Tatiana filed for divorce in April 2022 after 30 years of marriage and two daughters, Alexander and Carolina Pino.
First he tried to slowly and covertly poison her with fentanyl over months, as revealed during their divorce proceedings later in 2022.
'When that failed, he put out a contract on her head on two separate occasions, hiring separate groups of hitmen to do the job,' Lapointe said.
He explained the first murder crew Pino hired allegedly included Bayron Bennett, who was a part-time food and drink server on his yacht 'Century Star', and three others - Micahael Dulfo, Edner Etienne and Jerren Howard.
They were charged in connection with arson and hit-and-run attempts on Tatiana and her sister, which were revealed after an earlier FBI raid on June 24.
The hitmen allegedly burned three cars outside her sister's home, and tried to run her down in a rented Home Depot flatbed truck.
The hit-and-run attempt on August 30 last year was a dismal failure, seen on CCTV waiting near Tatiana's house then ramming into her car's passenger side door.
Pino later hired a second crew, allegedly including Diori Barnard, Clementa Johnson, Vernon Green, Avery Bivins, and Fausto Villar.
Pino met Villar, a convicted felon, when he did some roofing work for him.
He promised them $150,000 to carry out the hit before the next divorce hearing, and double if the murder couldn't be traced back to him, charging documents alleged.
Green allegedly tried to carry the hit out, but botched it when Tatiana fought back and he ended up sticking a gun in Carolina's face.
He tried to ambush her as she pulled into her driveway on June 23, pointing a gun at her car, court documents alleged.
Tatiana accelerated her car into her backyard to escape, scraping a tree and a fence, and honked her horn constantly to attract attention.
Green allegedly chased her into the backyard, but then returned to the front where Carolina had come outside to see what all the fuss was about.
He pointed his gun 'inches from her face' grabbed, her, and ordered her to go back inside, which she did, then fled in a Dodge Ram pickup truck.
After rounding up the alleged members of both crews and interrogating them, the FBI moved to arrest Pino at his mansion on Tuesday morning.
Agents called to anyone inside to surrender and stormed inside after no one answered, finding Pino dead in an upstairs bedroom.
The FBI said he was alone with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead by the medical examiner.
Aerial footage of the aftermath of the raid showed the front doors and windows smashed in by the SWAT team, a medical examiner's van in the driveway, and a body being wheeled on a stretcher to the private jetty at the back.
Pino's lawyer Sam Rabin said the number of cops at the raid was 'unprecedented and unnecessary' and maintained his client's innocence.
'Sadly, I no longer have a living client to allow me to respond to the government's new allegations,' he said.
'That is because prosecutors ignored my emails and phone conversations where I volunteered to surrender Mr Pino if they wanted to arrest him.
'Although I have not seen any of the evidence that the government claims to have, the narrative that they are putting forth is contrary to the person and character of Sergio Pino.'
Pino was the the president of Century Homebuilders Group, billed as the largest Hispanic-owned homebuilder in the nation.
He was worth $153 million, according to divorce documents, but there were arguments about how much money he actually had.
One filing put their combined wealth at $359 million, but Pino said he invented that figure as 'a joke' using 'made up' numbers, and the $153 million was accurate.
Tatiana said in divorce depositions that was hospitalized on multiple occasions and doctors found fentanyl in her system.
During her deposition in September 2022, Tatiana said that she was sick for three years and was 'in and out of hospitals.'
At the time, Sergio's defense attorney, Sam Rabin, asked his client's wife: 'Do you believe that your husband poisoned you?'
'I believe that he did,' Tatiana replied.
She was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2022, as doctor's struggled to diagnose her.
Tatiana struggled to breathe and had to intubated six times before doctors discovered that she had the deadly narcotic in her system.
Once she was released, doctors told Sergio's wife not to return to her 'normal surroundings,' as she stayed at her sister's home while she recovered.
'They were scared for me because had this happened to me again, I would have been dead,' Tatiana said, according to records.
During her recovery Tatiana recalled that after moving out of the home with her husband, her symptoms started to disappear.
When asked by her husband's attorney what motive Sergio might have to poison her, Tatiana suggested that he was allegedly trying to kill her for financial gain.
'Well, I just don't think that my housekeepers would have a motive. He would have a money motive maybe. A financial motive,' she previously said.
Rabin continued to question Tatiana but she was advised by her attorney, Raymond Rafool, not to speak about the investigation conducted by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
Deanna Shifrin, Sergio's family lawyer, said that although Tatiana has been seen by multiple medical professionals over the years, she admitted under oath that none of her illnesses were confirmed to be caused by poisoning.
'In other words, there is no objective evidence that Mrs Pino was poisoned by anyone,' Shifrin told DailyMail.com.
'To be clear, Mr. Pino is devastated by these attacks against him and his family and denies any suggestion that he is responsible for them.'
The lawyer added that the husband 'has also been the victim of threats and acts of vandalism during his divorce proceedings.'
In divorce court filings, Tatiana has said that she is entitled to alimony as she stopped working and became a stay-at-home mom for her and Sergio's children.
The filing added that the family lives 'a lavish and luxurious lifestyle' that Tatiana is not able to keep up with living on her own.
Sergio said his wife 'expressly waived their right' to alimony through their original marital agreement, according to a counter-petition.
Tatiana came back and said that she signed a post-nuptial agreement 'under duress and coercion.'
The filing revealed that the pair first got married on April 9, 1992 in a civil ceremony, but on the day before their 'long-planned religious wedding ceremony and party,' Sergio allegedly 'ambushed' her with the agreement.
'These factors caused Ms. Pino to feel like she could not say no to signing the Postnuptial Agreement without disappointing her Husband — who she trusted — and also her family and friends who were looking forward to the following day's celebration,' the filing said.
'For that reason, Tatiana argues that that the marital agreement is not enforceable.'
Sergio runs Century Homebuilders Group - the 'largest Hispanic-owned homebuilder in the nation,' according to the company's website.
He is largely known for his high-profile businessman status with influential connections to both state and local politicians.
In 2022, Sergio's company partnered with another successful Miami-based real-estate developer, Treo Group, and bought 10.5 acres in Florida City with plans to construct 131 townhomes, The Real Deal reported.
Century Homebuilders paid $6.3million for the project. The group recently finished a four-bedroom complex with 537 condos in Doral.
By Nic White and Emma Richter
July18,2024
