Hungarian company linked to pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria

By Justin Spike | Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary — In a duplex in a quiet neighborhood of the Hungarian capital sits the headquarters of a company linked to the manufacture of pagers that have exploded in Lebanon and Syria in an apparent Israeli operation against the militant group Hezbollah.

BAC Consulting shares the ground floor of this modest Budapest building with other businesses. On Wednesday morning, Associated Press reporters saw the names of several companies, including BAC, displayed on pieces of printer paper and taped to a window.

In a business registry, the company listed 118 official functions, including sugar and oil production, jewelry retail and natural gas extraction.

BAC reportedly supplied the thousands of devices that killed at least 12 people, including two children, and wounded about 2,800 people Tuesday in a coordinated attack that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed on Israel.

New attacks were reported on Wednesday, with walkie-talkies and solar equipment being blown up in several regions of Lebanon. The second wave of attacks left at least nine dead and more than 300 injured, the Health Ministry said.

The Taiwanese company whose brand appears on the pagers, Gold Apollo, said Wednesday that it had authorized the use of its name on the devices.

BAC was authorized “to use our trademark for the sale of products in designated regions, but the design and manufacture of the products are the sole responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.

A Hungarian government spokesman said the pagers had never been to Hungary and that BAC Consultants had merely acted as an intermediary.

“The authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a commercial intermediary, with no production or operating site in Hungary. It has a director registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been to Hungary,” Zoltán Kovács said on X on Wednesday.

The Hungarian national security services are cooperating with international partners and this case does not pose any risk to Hungary’s national security, he added.

BAC Consulting, which was registered as a limited liability company in May 2022, generated revenue of $725,000 in 2022 and $593,000 in 2023, according to the companies registry.

Its CEO is Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, who describes herself on LinkedIn as a strategic advisor and business developer with a PhD.

BAC could be an acronym, in the eastern order of names used in Hungary, for Bársony-Arcidiacono Cristiana.

The AP attempted to reach Bársony-Arcidiacono by email and social media but received no response. It’s unclear what connection, if any, she or BAC had to the attack.

She describes herself as a physicist and consultant for projects aimed at solving environmental and political problems. She co-authored a paper in 2022 for a UNESCO conference on groundwater management.

Bársony-Arcidiacono’s LinkedIn page lists her as a board member of the Earth Child Institute, a sustainability group. But the group does not list Bársony-Arcidiacono as a board member on its website.

She also writes that she is a strategic advisor to major international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the humanitarian agency CARE, as well as to venture capital firms.

The IAEA confirmed that a person named Cristiana Arcidiacino was an intern with the agency for nine months in 2008 and 2009. Other relationships could not be immediately confirmed.

In an article about her on an online expert site, Bársony-Arcidiacono said: “A good understanding of local issues and a network of collaborators in various fields are important for success.”
BAC Consulting’s website, which went offline on Wednesday, describes the company’s areas of expertise as “environment, development and international affairs.”