On 17 September it was reported by all major news agencies that hundreds of pagers have exploded in the hands and pockets of Hezbollah soldiers. The reports indicated that 12 people died and around 2323 were injured in the explosions.
Lebanon instantly blamed Israel for the attack, however, the Jewish state did not comment on the event at the time. The USA also responded that they had no knowledge of such operations, and warned the parties not to escalate matters further.
Later press reports indicated that the pagers were manufactured by a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. It is likely that they have been modified during transport, with each of them receiving small amounts of explosives.
On Wednesday CEO of Gold Apollo Hsu Ching-kuang held a press conference on the matter, where he announced that the AR-924 pagers ordered by Hezbollah were manufactured under licence by a company called BAC. At first, Hsu only stated that it was a European company with an office in Taipei, Taiwan, and this was also included in the company’s first official statement. However, later, they specifically named Budapest-based BAC Consulting Ltd as the company that manufactured and distributing the pagers.
Gold Apollo has not presented the specific agreement made with BAC Consulting. The Taiwanese company’s CEO revealed to an AP reporter on Wednesday that the cooperation agreement has been in place for three years, and it was BAC that expressed interest in manufacturing the pagers. Hsu also told reporters that they had had connections with the company even before the licensing agreement. He recalled a peculiar incident in which a Taiwanese bank withheld a suspicious transfer that might have been linked to a Middle Eastern country.
According to its website, BAC Consulting is a consultancy firm working on various projects. Company records show that it has been in business for two years, with a revenue of 210 million forints and a profit of 13 million last year. Its activities range from publishing to oil production, and its owner does not have any other companies. In light of this, it remains unclear how Gold Apollo could have had a cooperation agreement with the company for three years and how they had been already connected before that.
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