Did A Budapest-Based Company Make Pagers Used In Attack On Hezbollah?

BUDAPEST -- A Budapest-based company alleged to have made the pagers used in the deadly attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon appears to have only one employee working from an empty office that offers a range of services but not pager manufacturing.

At least 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by members of Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on September 17.

One official from Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful proxy in the Middle East, called the attack the group's "biggest security breach" in its history.

In a second wave of attacks, walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated on September 18 across Lebanon's south. The country's Health Ministry said at least 20 people were killed and more than 450 injured.

Images of pagers destroyed in the September 17 simultaneous detonations indicated they were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company.

Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that Gold Apollo named in a statement as BAC Consulting KFT.

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The statement added that according to a cooperation agreement, BAC is authorized to "use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC."

"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Hsu told reporters at the company's offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on September 18.

However, the head of the Budapest-based company BAC Consulting KFT later told NBC News that her company did not make the pagers.

"I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong," a person who identified themselves as Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told the U.S. broadcaster.

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According to RFE/RL's Hungarian Service, Barsony-Arcidacono, 49, has an apartment in Ujpest, a central district of Budapest, and had been engaged in business activities there since 2021.

Efforts to contact Barsony-Arcidiancono by RFE/RL were unsuccessful. The Hungarian Interior Ministry did not response to queries from RFE/RL on whether authorities planned to open a probe on the matter.

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The stated address for BAC Consulting in Budapest is a peach-colored building on a mostly residential street in an outer suburb.

A person at the building who asked not to be named told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service he had never met any employees from BAC Consulting and only mail was forwarded to that address once a month.

The official register described the company as a "leadership consulting" business that was established in 2022.

The company's LinkedIn page boasts of having "over a decade of consulting experience."

"With over a decade of consulting experience, we are on an exciting and rewarding journey with our network of passionate experts with a hunger for innovation and discovery for the Environment, Innovation & Development, and International Affairs. We work internationally as agents of change with a network of consultants who put their knowledge, experience, and humanity into our projects in a connecting and authentic journey," it reads.

Besides consulting, its registered business activities also included everything from broadcast equipment production to hairdressing and even oil extraction. The company's website makes no reference to pager manufacturing. Revenue for 2022 was the equivalent of $700,000, with that figure dipping to a reported $565,000.

Barsony-Arcidiacono is listed as the CEO and sole employee of BAC Consulting KFT. On her LinkedIn page profile, she claims to have worked as an adviser for several organizations, including the European Commission, the EU’s top executive body, and UNESCO, the UN’s cultural organization.

Under education, she lists the London School of Economics and the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) University in London.