Read the documents: FBI affidavits detail alleged threats against developer’s wife

Documents filed in Miami federal court earlier this year shed new light on this week’s FBI raid of the home and office of prominent developer Sergio Pino, part of an investigation into whether Pino made threats against his wife’s life amid nasty divorce proceedings.

The FBI is looking into whether Pino was behind the recruitment of a crew of men who allegedly threatened his wife in the wake of her filing for divorce from him in April 2022, according to people familiar with the matter. Four men have been arrested in connection with the alleged threats.

Bayron Bennett, a household employee of Pino, and three other Miami-Dade men, Michael Dulfo, Edner Etienne and Jerren Howard, were charged in March with stalking Pino’s wife Tatiana in connection with a hit-and-run at her home. Bennett, Dulfo and Howard were also charged with a racketeering-related offense and arson for allegedly targeting three vehicles belonging to Tatiana Pino’s sister.

Read more: Arson, hit-and-run at center of probe into Sergio Pino’s alleged threats against wife

A pair of FBI affidavits supporting the criminal complaints detail the incidents. In August 2023, court documents say, Tatiana Pino’s BMW was struck by a rented flatbed truck. The documents also detail two alleged arson incidents last July and August.

The four defendants are facing trial in late August. Although the court documents don’t identify Sergio or Tatiana Pino by name, Bennett is described as “hired help” who put together food and beverage services for the home builder for excursions on his yacht.

Sergio Pino’s defense attorney, Sam Rabin, said they’re aware of the prosecutions of the four men and the ongoing investigation by the FBI, which raided the builder’s waterfront home and business in Coral Gables on Monday night.

Tatiana Pino filed for divorce in April of 2022. In a deposition as part of the proceedings in September of that year, she testified that she believed Sergio Pino had “poisoned” her, saying she was hospitalized multiple times and that doctors found fentanyl in her system.

Read the criminal complaints here:

This story was originally published June 29, 2024 at 5:30 AM.

Aaron Leibowitz

Miami Herald

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Aaron Leibowitz covers the city of Miami Beach for the Miami Herald, where he has worked as a local government reporter since 2019. He was part of a team that won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside. He is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.