Hezbollah's exploding pagers made by Hungarian company, Taiwan firm says

1 month ago 6

Hundreds of pagers explode in Lebanon and Syria

Hundreds of pagers explode in Lebanon and Syria 03:12

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that it had authorized the use of its trademarked branding on the pagers that exploded Tuesday across Lebanon and Syria. But it said the devices carried by members of the Hezbollah group were actually manufactured and sold by Bac Consulting KFT — a company based in Budapest, Hungary.

Thousands of pagers held by Hezbollah members exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 2,750, according to Lebanon's public health minister.

"We authorize BAC 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," Gold Apollo said in a statement posted on its website. "Regarding the AR-924 pager model mentioned in the recent media reports [about Lebanon], we clarify that this model is produced and sold by BAC."

Gold Apollo's founder and CEO Hsu Ching-kuang told NPR on Wednesday that "there was nothing in those devices that we had manufactured or exported to them [BAC]."

An injured man undergoes an operation, following pager detonations across Lebanon, at a hospital in Beirut

The pagers "were entirely different" from Gold Apollo's designs and used a chip that Gold Apollo does not use in its own models, Hsu said.

Hsu told NPR that Gold Apollo's relationship with Bac Consulting began three years ago, and he described the Hungarian company's money transfers as "strange."

Bac Consulting had paid Gold Apollo from a Middle Eastern bank account that was blocked at least once by Gold Apollo's Taiwanese bank, Hsu said.

"It was very inconvenient," he told NPR, adding: "You have to deal with these risks when doing global trade."

Business records accessed by CBS News from Hungary's Ministry of Justice show that Bac Consulting was registered as a company in May 2022.

Images circulated widely on social media showed the explosions hitting seemingly unsuspecting Hezbollah members across Lebanon. The CBS News Confirmed team has verified the location of one video showing a man's bag exploding as he looks over fruit on display at a supermarket in Lebanon's capital city of Beirut. There were a number of other shoppers around him, but none appeared to be affected by the explosion at his hip.

A statement released by Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed militant group and political faction based in Lebanon, confirmed that the pager explosions had targeted their members. It laid the blame firmly on Israel, vowing a "harsh response that the criminal enemy must await for the massacre it committed."

It remains unclear exactly how many Hezbollah pagers exploded on Tuesday. But a senior Lebanese security official and another source told the Reuters news agency that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency had planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 of the devices, which it said were ordered by Hezbollah months before the blasts.

The devices were brought "into the country [Lebanon] in the spring," the security source told Reuters.

A delegation of Israeli lawmakers had visited Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in April, with the intention of "leveraging our industrial strengths and continuing to deepen our partnership," according to a statement released by the Taiwanese president's office at the time.

While Israeli officials have not commented publicly on the explosions, a U.S. official told the AP that Israel had briefed the U.S. about the operation Tuesday after its conclusion. American officials have said the U.S. had no prior knowledge of the operation and no involvement in it.

CBS News has asked Bac Consulting in Budapest to comment on where and how its devices are manufactured and sold, but had not received an answer either over the phone or via email by the time of publication.

The company's LinkedIn profile does not mention manufacturing services, describing its work as "business consulting and services."

The company's listed CEO is Cristiana Barsony- Arcidiacono. Her personal LinkedIn profile says she worked in a number of previous roles including positions at the European Union Commission, UNESCO, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Responding to CBS News in a text message, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said the Hungarian leader's office had "no knowledge/info on the matter."

The AR-924 pager model was advertised by Gold Apollo as a "rugged" device. They require a lithium battery, according to advertising of the product on Gold Apollo's website. That advertising has been removed from the Taiwanese company's website.