Manufacturer in Taiwan, connections to Hungary?

A small, inconspicuous company from Taiwan called “Gold Apollo” is suddenly receiving international attention. The small communication devices that exploded in the hands and on the hips of suspected Hezbollah members in Lebanon on Tuesday, injuring almost 3,000 people and killing at least twelve, bore the logo of the Taiwanese brand. It is the AR924 pager model, which is advertised as being particularly robust.

Such pagers are used in hospitals, restaurants or hotels. Hezbollah members apparently used them instead of mobile phones to communicate with each other.

“This is not our product”

Hsu Ching-kuang, who founded Gold Apollo 30 years ago and still runs the company, tried to limit the damage on Wednesday. He invited international media to his office in New Taipei and assured that the affected devices were “100 percent” not made in Taiwan. “This is not our product. It just bears our brand,” he said.

A partner company in Hungary called BAC Consulting has been developing, manufacturing and selling the AR924 pagers for two years, Hsu said. BAC has obtained a license to do so from Gold Apollo.

Hsu admitted that he sometimes had a bad feeling about the collaboration because there were irregularities in the payment transactions. Transfers were made via the Middle East. Hsu did not say which country. “We are not a big company, but we are a responsible one,” said Hsu, adding that the whole thing was very embarrassing for him. “I am just a businessman – how did I get involved in this attack?”

His question cannot yet be answered with certainty. But there were apparently weaknesses in the supply chain of Gold Apollo’s communications equipment. The delivery of 5,000 robust pagers, which Hezbollah hoped would provide greater security, became a deadly weapon.

A mailbox company in Budapest

Gold Apollo’s Hungarian sales partner, BAC Consulting, appears to be a dubious company. The address in Budapest, which is given as the company’s headquarters on the company’s website, shows a salmon-pink house. Several companies are apparently based there – BAC Consulting may be a mailbox company. The business figures also suggest this.

Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, who is listed as the company’s CEO, did not respond to several inquiries from the NZZ. According to her Linkedin profile, she studied at the London School of Economics and worked for the European Commission. When asked by the television station NBC, she told the company that although she works with Gold Apollo, she is merely an “intermediary”. “I don’t make pagers.”

 

A spokesman for the Hungarian government confirmed this on Wednesday evening. BAC is an intermediary, not a manufacturer, and the pagers in question were never in Hungary.

There are good arguments for this version of the story. In a promotional video from Gold Apollo from August 2023, the spokesperson says that all devices are developed and manufactured in Taiwan without exception. The website of the official distributor of the pagers, Apollo Systems Hong Kong, had the affected model AR924 listed on its website until Tuesday. On Wednesday it had disappeared. Photos of the destroyed pagers in Lebanon most likely identify them as models from Gold Apollo; the labeling and stickers suggest this.

«No risk of explosion»

However, it is unlikely that Gold Apollo exported the devices directly to the Middle East or even equipped them with explosives itself. Taking such a reputational risk would be foolish from a business perspective. The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement on Wednesday that, according to the data available, no pagers were exported directly to Lebanon. The case is being investigated by the Taiwanese judiciary. “As things stand, the pagers exported from Taiwan do not pose any risk of explosion.”

According to statistics from Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Gold Apollo has exported a total of 260,000 pagers from 2022 to August 2024, mainly to European and North American countries, 41,000 this year alone.

It remains unclear which route the 5,000 AR924 pagers took to Lebanon. The trail ends in Budapest. It is plausible that the sale of the pagers to Lebanon was carried out by dubious third-party companies – BAC Consulting, for example. The Israeli secret service, which is presumably behind the attack on Hezbollah, may have been able to intercept the devices during transport and tamper with them. The small company from Taiwan was part of the collateral damage. It will now have to rethink its supply chain.

Contributors: Seda Motie, Forrest Rogers