The default pine config in /etc/pinerc uses "-r _RECIPIENTS_" (for gpg-encrypt and gpg-encrypt+sign) which will be expanded to "-r recipient1 recipient2 recipientX" when I send an encrypted email. gpg, however, expects the recipient argument as "-r recipient1 -r recipient2 -r recipientX".
s/pinerc/pine.conf/
*** Bug 24902 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The PINE 4.33 packages soon to appear in rawhide fix this by using a newer version of pinepgp.