Another S.S.B. loan goes bad

As if the Social Security Board didn’t have enough to worry about, we are informed this week that another one of its major loans has gone bad. A notice in last weekend’s Amandala indicates that a receiver has been appointed for no less than seven companies operating in Toledo, all controlled by controversial Danish businessman Soren Sorensen. While in the first instance the institution foreclosing is the Belize Bank, we understand that the S.S.B. is cooperating in the arrangement, with Stanley Ermeav of Horwath Belize appointed as receiver for several creditors. The Social Security loan, which appears to have violated a number of that institution’s guidelines, was made to Toledo Fish Farming Company Limited. The original amount dispersed was one point five million Belize dollars at ten percent interest, but Sorensen’s failure to make timely payments has inflated the debt to around two point two million. Unlike the case in the loans guaranteed for Glenn Godfrey, the S.S.B. maintains that in this instance its collateral is adequate. That collateral, by the way, is not the fish farm, but instead a six hundred and forty acre banana farm, also owned by Sorensen. The reason the board and the bank moved in was the need to keep the various operations, largely banana plantations, functioning smoothly so they could be sold as profitable enterprises instead of low cost real estate. Sources indicate that while the Social Security Board runs the risk of taking a million plus hit, the exposure of the Belize Bank is far greater. Sorensen is no stranger to trouble, having been frequently cited for not paying his workers, not paying his creditors–and ironically–failing to pay his share of worker contributions to Social Security.