State Secretary Zoltán Kovács said the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon were purchased by a Sofia-based company from Taiwan, news portal Telex has reported, adding that the Hungarian company linked to the case did not play an active role in the supply of the devices.
Telex cited Kovács as saying that the company in question "is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary" and that the devices themselves "have never been in Hungary".
Hsu Ching-Kuang, the CEO of Gold Apollo which distributes the device, told a press conference on Wednesday that the AR-924 pagers ordered by Hezbollah were manufactured under license by a company called BAC. Hsu and the company's first official statement only said that the pagers were manufactured by a European company with an office in Taipei, but later BAC Consulting Ltd. of Budapest was specifically named as the company responsible for the production and distribution of the devices.
Telex's sources said BAC Consulting Ltd. was merely an intermediary in the transaction and had not actually carried out any activities itself. The company does not even have an office and is only registered at the address of a headquarters service provider, Telex said.
"Sources with knowledge of the case told us that the managing director of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, was in contact with a Bulgarian company, Norta Global Ltd, based in Sofia. Although on paper it was BAC Consulting that signed the contract with Gold Apollo, Norta Global Ltd. was actually the one behind the deal," the portal said.
It added that it was not BAC Consulting, but rather the Bulgarian company, that imported the pagers from Taiwan, and was also the one that arranged the sale and delivery of the equipment to Hezbollah.
The Bulgarian company is owned by a Norwegian individual and is registered to a headquarters service provider, Telex said. It was founded in April 2022 and, on paper, is engaged in project management, but it is presumed that it does not manufacture anything.
According to Telex's sources, Barsony-Arcidiacono only acted as an intermediary, and the Hungarian company was only needed to cover up the Bulgarian thread.
Telex cited Barsony-Arcidiacono confirming to NBC News that her company had indeed worked with Gold Apollo, but when asked about the pagers and the detonations, she said, "I don't make pagers. I'm just the middleman. I think you misunderstood the situation."
The portal cited EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano as warning against jumping to conclusions. "The reasons and how it was done, how it was organised, needs to be investigated," he said.
It cited the Government Information Centre (KTK) as saying in response to a query by news portal Hvg.hu that "there is freedom of enterprise in Hungary. The company in question has never received any assignment for any projects from the Hungarian government and has never applied for any authorisation by the government. It operates as a private business."