He's one of the most powerful businessmen in Belize and from the looks of things, Soren Sorenson is in quite a fix. Sorenson, who owns and estimated 30% of all of Belize's banana farms, is in the middle of a labor crisis, after he failed to pay his workers last week. 7 news has confirmed that Sorenson paid his workers only one-third of their salary, paid them the other one-third in food vouchers for his grocery story, and promised the other one-third for sometime next year. With that almost half the workers reportedly went on strike, leaving perishable fruit unpacked and undelivered.
The Labor Department has been alerted officially by the Banana Growers Association which is distancing itself from his labor practices. If his name sounds familiar, it may be because Sorenson is another of the beneficiaries of a Social Security investment. Social Security invested 1.05 million dollars in his Toledo fish farm which at the end of may was in arrears, as the payments could not even cover the Principal.
And while that's what's on the paper, 7 news has learned that Social Security made another investment in Sorenson when it loaned him 2 million dollars, but that was secreted into the investment portfolio as part of an 11 million dollar investment in the Banana Grower's Association. Sorenson as we understand it, is also deeply indebted, in the tens of million of dollars, to one major commercial bank.