The AR-924 pagers, also used by militants of the Lebenese Shiite armed group Hezbollahwere produced (or at least marketed) by a Hungarian company, which also seems to have a tenuous connection with Italy. But let’s rewind the tape.
When yesterday afternoon, around 3.30pm Beirut time (2.30pm in Italy), thousands of pagers began exploding across Lebanon and in some areas of Syria in an attack attributed but never claimed by Israel, which caused at least 11 deaths (including a child) and around four thousand injuries, the New York Times has published the news that they had been produced by a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo, whose brand was actually imprinted on these devices.
But in the morning, the Taipei company said the pagers were actually made by another company, BAC Consulting Kft., based in Budapest. “Under a cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand to sell products in certain regions, but the design and production of the products is the sole responsibility of BAC,” the company said in a statement. “Our company only provides authorization for the use of the brand and is not involved in the design and production” of these devices.
“These are not our products,” company chairman Hsu Ching-kuang later said at a press conference in Taipei. “They are not our products from start to finish,” added the Gold Apollo manager, who said the company has had an agreement with BAC Consulting “for three years,” but did not provide evidence of a contract between the two firms.
An administrator of Italian origin
We at TPI we went to check the information provided by the Taiwanese company. According to the Budapest Commercial Register and the Hungarian National Customs Administration, there is indeed a company called “BAC Consulting Kft” based in the capital. Its main activity is business consulting and cooperation with other companies. The official headquarters are located in a small building on a mostly residential street in Zugló, in the 14th district of the Hungarian capital. The name of the company is posted on the glass door on an A4 sheet. On the other side of the driveway there is a warehouse, which however houses several other companies. There is no trace of any production plant. A little mystery but dFrom here on, some faint links with Italy also seem to emerge.
The CEO and sole representative of the company, as also emerges from the company’s website, is a certain Cristiana Rosaria Arcidiacono-Bársony, a 49-year-old resident of Újpest, in the fourth district of Budapest. She herself, on the company’s website, claims to have “Italian and Hungarian roots”. Moreover, in the company’s presentation we read: “BAC Consulting is based in the beautiful city of Budapest, blending the cultural background, energy and beauty of the Mediterranean area with that of the Central-Eastern Europe of its founder”. To entice customers, then, on the page dedicated to contacts, the company promises: “When you are in Budapest, we will be happy to talk to you, sipping a delicious Italian coffee”.
In the short biography of Arcidiacono-Bársony, in addition to the degrees and masters obtained in London, there is also a degree in Physics and Environmental Physics from the University of Catania. Among the main results achieved, we read on the website, there are also some articles published in scientific journals and in some newspapers, including Sicilyon whose website, however, there are no articles by him or interviews.
In truth, the “strategic consultant”, founder, administrator and presumably owner of the company also seems to be the only one who works there. Although the company website states: “We operate internationally as agents of change with a network of consultants”, but we found no trace of this anywhere. The oddities do not end there.
What doesn’t add up
According to official documents, BAC Consulting Kft was founded in May 2022 and registered the following month in Hungary, so just over two years ago. How can it have a cooperation agreement with Gold Apollo “for three years,” as the president of the Taiwanese company said today? Maybe it’s just an oversight or an administrative problem. As the director of the Hungarian company herself writes, the latter has been operating since 2019 even though it was officially registered only three years later. But it doesn’t end there.
In her short biography and in the company presentation on its website, Arcidiacono-Bársony describes herself as an expert in “climate, water and conflict issues” and BAC Consulting Kft also boasts collaborations with UNESCO in the context of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) which, according to the Italian representation at this United Nations agency, “aims to promote and disseminate scientific knowledge, technical training and the necessary guidelines for water management that is at the same time efficient, responsible and eco-sustainable”.
According to her Linkedin profile, the 49-year-old also obtained a doctorate from one of the most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom, University College London (UCL), then studied at the London School of Economics and Political in Science (LSE) and also obtained a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development for Natural Resources Management at the School of Oriental & African Studies in the British capital. She would also have collaborated as an expert with the European Commission and written articles for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But what this type of activity has to do with the production and marketing of pager devices under another brand we have not understood.
However, his company is involved in various sectors, as can be seen on its website: from consultancy to the sale of jewellery, to telecommunications. According to the Hungarian company register, BAC Consulting Kft is also authorised to produce technical devices and sell technological products, although this is not its main activity. According to the same website, the company is involved in “international technological cooperation to sell telecommunications products”, among other things, on the markets of Asian and developing countries. However, there is no list of the products marketed, nor is there any description of the AR-924 pagers that exploded yesterday in Lebanon and Syria. However, according to the last two balance sheets (the only ones), the company reported net sales of 549,420 euros.
However, BAC Consulting Kft is not in good shape: from 2022 to 2023, its assets fell by almost a third and total liabilities increased almost tenfold. It is therefore not surprising that the solvency ratio is classified as “poor” by the Hungarian Business Register itself, according to which the “probability of bankruptcy within a year” exceeds 2 percent. In short, it certainly does not appear to be a solid supplier. On this and other points we have tried several times to contact the Hungarian company and its administrator but we have not yet received an answer.
Where and how the devices arrived in Lebanon and Syria remains to be investigated. However, it is also possible that they were purchased and resold by (and then to) third parties. According to the British news agency ReutersThat quote in this regard, a high-level source in the security forces in Lebanon and another source familiar with the operation, a few months ago, the Mossad (the Israeli secret service) would have placed a series of small explosive charges and a mini-detonator near the battery of at least five thousand pagers imported by the Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah, intercepting the shipment of communication devices. Who knows, perhaps the “Hungarian trail” is just a stop on this journey.
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