Pagers that exploded in hands of Hezbollah members made by a company in Budapest – licence holder claims

A few hours after thousands of pagers exploded in the hands and pockets of Hezbollah members throughout Lebanon and Syria, it was found that the devices were made by a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. According to leading international papers, the pagers ordered by the Lebanese militia/terrorist organisation Hezbollah were probably modified during transit – each probably containing a small explosive device and a mechanism to trigger it.

On Wednesday, Gold Apollo CEO Hsu Ching-Kuang held a press briefing on the subject, saying that the AR-294 pagers ordered by Hezbollah were manufactured under licence by a company called BAC. Initially, Hsu only said that it was a European company with an office in Taipei, Taiwan, which was all the company's first official statement revealed. Later on, however, he specifically named BAC Consulting Ltd. of Budapest as the manufacturer and distributor of the pagers.

According to a statement from the Taiwanese company quoted by AP

“Under our cooperation agreement, we have given BAC permission to use our branding on products for certain regions, but the design and manufacture of the AR-294 model is the sole responsibility of BAC.”

The full text of the English-language release is available here:

Speaking to a correspondent of AP on Wednesday, the Taiwanese company's CEO, Hsou Chingkuang said that the cooperation agreement had been in place for three years and that it was BAC that had approached them with the offer to produce the pager. Hsu also told reporters that they had been in contact with the company even prior to signing the licensing agreement. He also mentioned a curious case where a Taiwanese bank had withheld a suspicious bank transfer that might have been linked to a country in the Middle East.

Its website describes BAC Consulting Ltd. ia a consulting firm that works on a wide variety of projects. According to company records, it has been in business for two years and last year had a turnover of HUF 210 million (532 thousand euros) and a profit of HUF 13 million (33,000 euros). Its activities include everything from newspaper publishing to oil manufacture, and its owner doesn't have any other companies. It is unclear how, in light of all this, Gold Apollo could have had a cooperation agreement with the company three years ago and how it could have been in contact with it before then. We contacted BAC Consulting by telephone, but despite repeated calls we were unable to reach them.