Sergio Pino’s wife reaches settlement with rich developer’s brother in estate battle
The multimillion-dollar feud between the immediate families of wealthy Miami-Dade developer Sergio Pino, who took his own life last year during an FBI investigation into a plot to kill his wife, ended in court on Wednesday.
A Miami-Dade judge approved the settlement agreement between the family of Tatiana Pino, the developer’s estranged wife, and the family of his brother, Carlos Pino, ending their fight over various parts of Pino’s estate, valued at hundred of millions of dollars.
However, the resolution of their differences over Pino’s assets hardly means the end of the epic probate estate battle: Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny recently asked a court-appointed curator to sort out how many of the roughly 30 estate-related lawsuits are affected by challenges to a will and trust that Sergio Pino, 67, executed last year while he was going through a nasty divorce with Tatiana, 56.
At the time, FBI agents and federal prosecutors suspected Pino was orchestrating the alleged plot to kill his wife, including hiring crews to carry it out. Pino, the former CEO of Century Homebuilders Group in Coral Gables, fatally shot himself at his waterfront Cocoplum home in the Gables on the morning of July 16, 2024, as FBI agents closed in to arrest him.
READ MORE: After Sergio Pino’s death, the fight over his multimillion-dollar estate has just begun
Since his death, seven of nine men charged in the murder-for-hire conspiracy have pleaded guilty in Miami federal court, including one who was recently sentenced to about 20 years in prison.
READ MORE: Man in middle of Sergio Pino murder-for-hire plot gets about 20 years in prison
The Pino families’ settlement agreement removes Carlos Pino’s initial claim that he should be the personal representative of his brother’s estate, as Sergio Pino allegedly directed in a will that he signed on March 11, 2024. Judge Colodny never appointed him to that role, instead naming a neutral lawyer as the curator in charge of the estate’s assets.
So far, no judge has found that will to be valid, though it figured significantly in Tatiana and Sergio’s divorce proceedings before his death and continues to be a major issue in disputes over his estate.
In addition, several other legal claims made by Carlos Pino are now resolved. He has agreed to give up his stake in Sergio Pino’s vacation home in Key Largo valued at about $2 million, so it will go to Tatiana Pino. At the same time, Pino’s former development company, Century Homebuilders Group — now run by Tatiana — has agreed to forgive a promissory note for $691,470 that was owed by Carlos Pino, who heads the family’s original plumbing wholesale business founded by the brothers’ father.
Tatiana to run Century Homebuilders
Lawyers on both sides of the Pino family feud expressed relief over the settlement agreement.
“All of the disputes between the Pino family members have been amicably resolved,” Carlos Pino’s lawyer, Sergio Mendez, told the Miami Herald. “Carlos Pino looks forward to reconciling the family differences.”
Tatiana Pino’s lawyer, Glen Waldman, called the resolution a “very significant step.”
“We now have certainty that Tatiana Pino can continue to run Century Homebuilders Group,” Waldman said. “This also removes an impediment and creates a path to work with the curator to resolve other issues in the estate.”
Ex-girlfriend still fighting over Pino’s assets
Among the various estate-related lawsuits: Tatiana Pino is fighting with her husband’s former girlfriend, who worked as a sales agent for Century Homebuilder’s Midtown Doral project, a complex of condos, a clubhouse and a restaurant. She’s also battling the development company’s former chief operating officer, who claims an equity stake in the firm.
Tatiana’s settlement with Carlos Pino and his family — negotiated through mediation led by Miami attorney Bruce Greer — followed another important step for her.
In mid-July, Tatiana fortified her position in the estate case when she reached a prior settlement agreement with her two grown daughters from her marriage with Pino as well as with the two adult children from Pino’s prior marriage, according to her probate lawyer, Waldman, and divorce attorney, Ray Rafool.
The settlement, approved by Judge Colodny, said Tatiana was entitled to full ownership of Century Homebuilders, the biggest of the couple’s marital assets, with two dozen residential developments across Florida.
READ MORE: With millions at stake, Sergio Pino’s wife reaches key settlement in estate case
The settlement also reinforced an operating agreement set up by Pino in 2013 when he founded Century Homebuilders and listed himself as owning half of the company and his wife the other half, the lawyers said. When he died last year, his ownership half automatically transferred to Tatiana under the terms of the agreement, they said.
She is listed as Century Homebuilder’s president, according to the company’s website. Her two daughters also work there.
In the months and days before Pino killed himself, he arranged to transfer his half ownership of Century Homebuilders to a newly created trust benefiting the company’s longtime chief operating officer, Pedro Hernandez, and a few other senior employees.
Pino carried out this change despite a Miami-Dade judge’s order in the couple’s long-running divorce case that prohibited him from disposing of their marital assets, according to her lawyers. Tatiana’s divorce petition, filed in 2022, was not finalized before Pino’s death last summer.
