One of the men accused in the Sergio Pino murder-for-hire plot was recorded while on a call with a co-conspirator discussing how to cover their tracks from the FBI. NBC6’s Tony Pipitone reports
As the FBI built its case against men they suspected were hired by prominent South Florida developer Sergio Pino to murder his wife, one of the men agreed in July to cooperate, making a recorded call to the man he said recruited him to form what the FBI called one of two “murder crews.”
Avery Bivins had met the man he was to call for the FBI as they both served terms in a Florida state prison -- Bivins for attempted felony murder and armed robbery.
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The target of his controlled call, Fausto Villar, had done time for armed robbery.
“It’s going to be good, everything gonna be straight,” Bivins tells him.
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“Straight. But the f---ing smoke has to clear,” Villar replies. “Everything has to clear, smoke has to clear. So with what you got, try to fend off.”
But it was too late for Bivins to fend off the feds.
Coverage of Sergio Pino
The July 15 call was a turning point in the investigation, as the next morning FBI arrest teams moved in to arrest Villar and Pino, who the U.S. Attorney's Office said avoided murder-for-hire charges only because he shot himself in the head.
Pino and Villar were connected through Villar’s wife’s roofing company, which was working on the Pinos' $8 million waterfront Coral Gables home.
The FBI alleges Pino gave him a very different task: arrange the murder of Pino’s wife of 30 years, Tatiana.
In the July 15 call, Villar sounds worried, knowing the feds were already onto the plot as several of the nine people eventually charged had been arrested.
And Pino would spend that day amending lucrative trust agreements he had first set up in March when he executed his last will and testament -- on the same day one of the men he allegedly hired to kill his wife was arrested.
Bivins, knowing the noose was tightening around the plotters, had his attorney offer his cooperation to the FBI, Villar’s attorney said during the August 9 detention hearing where the call was played. A recording of the nearly two-hour-long proceeding was made public Wednesday after the Miami Herald successfully petitioned the court to release it.
On it, it’s clear Villar knew some of Bivins’ crew was already in custody and is concerned about possible conspiracy charges.
“Why would you, if you get pinched, they’re going to have, this becomes now a conspiracy,” Villar tells Bivins. “Now you can’t shake the rap. Your two boys now, or whoever the f--- they are, they can shake the rap.”
He sounds concerned Bivins would be arrested next.
“You should erase your ‘gram. You erase your ‘gram,” he tells Bivins, concerned about their electronic trail. “You delete … delete. Do that for me, erase that. And then I’m going to go zero-dark-30 on this sh-- for a while.”
Villar wanted to be released prior to trial, but the government successfully argued he was too much of flight risk and danger to the community, noting at one point in the call Villar tells Bivins “I’m not going back to prison.”
Villar had already paid Bivins $75,000 after Bivins accepted the $150,000 contract to murder Tatiana – with a $150,000 bonus if the deed was done without being detected, according to the FBI complaint.
The Pinos are not mentioned by name in the call, but the prosecutor told the court he was referred to by Villar.
At one point, he tells Bivins more money would eventually come his way, if things went well for them: “So at the end of the day when it’s all f---ing said and done I’m sure that there’ll be a little gift for me and, like, for you all. So let’s just do what the f--- we got to, G, okay?”
In case things didn’t work out, Villar said, “We need a plan where, let’s say, God forbid, they knock on your door one day or like whatever the case, someone’s got to let me know through here, like a code or something, yo.”
Bivins, Villar and seven other men have since been indicted in the alleged murder-for-hire plot or an earlier effort to stalk and commit arson against Tatiana or her family. All are being detained before trial and have pleaded not guilty. An attorney for Pino says he had denied involvement as well.
As for motive, Bivins later told the FBI something Villar said Sergio Pino told him: Tatiana had rejected Sergio’s divorce settlement offer of $20 million. Financial statements produced in a divorce case deposition of Sergio put the couple’s 2022 net worth at more than $153 million and as much as $359 million.
On June 23, one of the men Bivins allegedly recruited for what the FBI calls the second “murder crew” confronted Tatiana outside her Pinecrest house with a firearm, but never got off a shot as she fled in her car to the back driveway and ran into her house, according to the FBI.
On the July 15 call Villar said Pino knew the FBI was monitoring him so, he told Bivins, he could not get more money out of him at the moment.
After the call, Pino’s cellphone received a WhatsApp call from Villar and the two men exchanged WhatsApp messages, the complaint against Villar stated.
They spoke for 3 minutes and 15 seconds, the content of the call now known only to Villar, as Pino’s suicide ended the case against him.
Toward the end of his call with Bivins, Villar strikes what appears to be an optimistic note.
“When this b---- gets over and done with know this, we’re all good, you know what I’m saying,” Villar said. “Everything is going to be good.”
