With millions at stake, Sergio Pino's wife reaches key settlement in estate case

Miami Herald

2 days ago

Just over a year ago, wealthy Coral Gables developer Sergio Pino fatally shot himself at his waterfront home in Cocoplum as FBI agents closed in to arrest him on charges of plotting to kill his wife, Tatiana, with whom he'd been going through a bitter divorce.
The day after Pino, 67, died on July 16, 2024, his brother filed an estate case in the probate division of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court — a legal move that set the stage for a dramatic conflict over hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. The dispute has pitted Tatiana against the brother-in-law, Carlos Pino, and top executives of the late developer's company, Century Homebuilders Group.
READ MORE: Miami developer Sergio Pino found dead amid FBI 'murder for hire' investigation
In mid-July, Tatiana, 56, fortified her position in the estate case and dozens of related lawsuits when she reached a key 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 lawyers Glen Waldman and Ray Rafool.
The agreement was negotiated as six of nine defendants in the FBI's murder-for-hire probe targeting Pino pleaded guilty to conspiracy and related charges in Miami federal court. A trial is scheduled for October.
The recent settlement, which is expected to be approved by Probate Judge Yvonne Colodny, says that Tatiana is entitled to full ownership of Century Homebuilders, the biggest of the couple's martial assets, with two dozen residential developments across Florida.
'It's critically important,' Waldman told the Miami Herald Wednesday. 'I'm very happy we got this done.'
The settlement reinforces an operating agreement set up by Pino in 2013 when he founded Coral Gables-based 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 Century Homebuilder's president, according to the company's website.
But just because Tatiana and Pino's four adult children stand 'united' on her full ownership of Century Homebuilders — along with the allocation of other assets listed in the settlement agreement — it doesn't mean the legal disputes between Pino's wife and several others with estate claims will be easily resolved.
The reason: 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. Tatiana's divorce petition, filed in 2022, was not finalized before Pino's death last summer.
As a result, the curator of Pino's estate, Coral Gables accountant Philip Schechter, took the position that half of Century Homebuilders was an estate asset and potentially subject to a claim by Hernandez that he and the other employees should be allowed to receive Pino's equity in the company. At minimum, the wife should get the other half.
But Waldman, Tatiana's probate lawyer, said that as the curator, Schecter is 'standing in the shoes of Pino on behalf of his four grown children.' And now that they agree with Pino's wife, Tatiana, that she should be entitled to full ownership of Century Homebuilders, Hernandez's ownership claim rings hollow.
Ultimately, a resolution to the central conflict in Pino's estate case might be negotiated by a court-appointed mediator, lawyer Bruce Greer. Then, Colodny, the probate judge, would have final say. Century Homebuilders has been run by Tatiana and her two daughters almost since Pino's death.
Attorney Luis Barreto, who represents Hernandez and other Century Homebuilders employees, declined to comment, noting that he's 'in the middle of settlement discussions.' Hernandez, formerly second in command at Century, is no longer working for the company.
In the family's settlement, dated July 17, Tatiana's two daughters, Carolina Pino Neuman and Allesandra Pino, and Pino's two grown children from a prior marriage, Jacqueline Pino Wechsler and Sergio Alexander Pino, agreed to terms not only on her ownership of Century Homebuilders but on other major real estate assets in Miami, Doral and South Miami.
Among the company's assets: 850 Living, an eight-story, multi-family project with 230 units at 811 NW 43rd Ave., was sold for $71.5 million in March.
Under the settlement, Tatiana and the four children agreed that Jacqueline Pino Wechsler shall receive half of the net proceeds from the 850 Living property sale, according to a profit-sharing agreement set up by Pino a decade ago. Tatiana Pino shall receive a quarter of the proceeds, and another quarter shall go in equal parts to Pino's four grown children.
Miami attorney Mark Raymond, who is advising the Pino estate's curator, Schecter, said the settlement between Tatiana and Pino's four grown children was a step in the right direction, reducing the amount of litigation and costs.
'This is a positive development,' Raymond said. 'It will expedite the administration of the estate to the benefit of all beneficiaries and creditors.'
Attorney Sergio Mendez, who represents Pino's brother Carlos, who filed the estate case, did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the family's settlement, Tatiana has filed dozens of claims against Pino's estate, including one seeking $30 million in damages based on FBI allegations that her late husband conspired to kill her toward the end of their 32-year marriage.
Her claim states that Pino, a Cuban immigrant who had built a real estate empire over decades, committed 'attempted murder, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress by slowly poisoning Ms. Pino with fentanyl and hiring hitmen squads, who followed Ms. Pino for days, and then brandished a firearm at Ms. Pino and her daughter.'
The claim, which attaches federal charging documents filed against his nine co-conspirators, states that the developer 'caused Ms. Pino to be hospitalized on various occasions and suffer serious physical injury and emotional distress.'