‘Hungary Produced Pagers That Exploded And Killed Hezbollah Members’ (Worthy News Investigation)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says that the pager model allegedly used by Hezbollah members that simultaneously exploded and killed numerous people, mainly in Lebanon, was made by its Hungarian partner.
Gold Apollo has a “long-term partnership” with Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT to use its trademark, and the model mentioned in media reports “is produced and sold by BAC,” the company said in a statement after reports that Gold Apollo pagers were involved in the blasts.
The revelations are remarkable as Hungary’s government is pro-Israel. It has also used Israeli technology to spy on journalists and other perceived threats to the government, investigations revealed earlier.
However, University College London (UCL) graduate Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, the CEO of BAC Consultancy, said she was “just a link” in the supply chain and did not make the pagers.
“I do not make the pagers. I am just the intermediary. I think you got it wrong,” she said. Yet questions remained about whether a Hungarian factory could have produced the products.
The BAC Consulting in Budapest is a peach building on a residential street northeast of the city center.
A person at the building, who asked not to be named, said BAC Consulting “was registered” at the address but did not have a physical presence there.
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Several other companies were also listed as being registered at that address.
BAC’s website, which remained inaccessible Thursday, previously said it was scaling up its business in Asia and aimed to “develop international technology co-operation among countries for the sale of telecommunication products.”
According to records, BAC’s net turnover was 256,996,000 Hungarian Forint ($725,000) in 2022 and 210,307,000 Hungarian Forint ($593,000) in 2023.
A company brochure published on LinkedIn lists eight organizations BAC claims to have worked with, including the European Commission and the UK Department for International Development (DfID).
Yet a senior spokesperson for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said the exploding pagers were “never” in Hungary.
“Authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary,” said Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international communication and international relations.
At a dozen people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, several sources said.
Lebanese and American security suggested that explosives were planted in the devices planted by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.