A Berkshire Hathaway insurance unit is going after a Bronx contractor group for $1.18 million in unpaid workers' comp premiums - and chasing the owners personally.
In a lawsuit filed on April 17, 2026, in the Southern District of New York, Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Insurance Company and Redwood Fire and Casualty Insurance Company say three affiliated companies - Corbel Communications Industries LLC, Corbel Communications Industries of California Inc., and Citi Connect Industries LLC - owe $1,180,921.95 in additional workers' compensation and employer's liability premiums that turned up after post-policy audits. The two carriers are also asking the court to hold three individual defendants - Angelo Pino, Jr., Michael R. Pino, and Angelo John Pino - personally on the hook for the bill.
The allegations, which have not been tested in court and which the defendants have not yet answered, center on a feature of commercial insurance that rarely makes headlines but routinely generates litigation: the auditable premium.
According to the filing, the carriers issued three back-to-back workers' comp policies covering the Corbel group between June 2019 and February 2022. At the start of each policy, the insured paid an estimated premium based on its own representations about payroll and employee job duties. After each policy year wrapped up, the carriers went back and audited the actual numbers to see whether the estimate matched reality. It did not, the insurers say. The final audits produced three bills - roughly $375,000, $599,000, and $207,000 - that together add up to the $1.18 million now in dispute. The carriers say Corbel never timely challenged the audits and never paid.
What gives the case a sharper edge for insurance professionals is the second half of the story. The insurers allege that the three Corbel-related companies were not really running as separate businesses at all. They shared an address, shared officers, and shared a workforce, according to the filing, and did not keep up the formalities that normally keep corporate liabilities contained. The insurers go further, claiming the three individual owners used that blurred structure to sidestep their premium obligations - moving workers around between entities while allegedly failing to report payroll or hand over the records the audits required.
On that basis, the carriers are asking the court to pierce the corporate veil and hold the owners personally liable alongside their companies, along with related claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
For premium auditors, underwriters, and recovery teams in the workers' comp space, the case is a useful snapshot of where carriers are drawing the line. When payroll records go missing and affiliated entities start to look like one operation, insurers are increasingly willing to walk up the ladder and name the people behind the businesses. Whether the court agrees remains to be seen.
