What do we know about the Taiwanese company involved in the explosive pager attack in Lebanon?
I announced Taiwanese Gold Apollo Company On Wednesday, the communication devices that exploded simultaneously in the hands of Hezbollah members, killing at least 12 people, were manufactured by their Hungarian partner.
About 2,800 other people were injured, including the Iranian ambassador to LebanonWhen pagers exploded simultaneously across Lebanon, Hezbollah accused Israel of being behind the explosion.
The company said in a statement that Gold Apollo has a “long-term partnership” with Budapest-based BAC to use its brand, adding that the model mentioned in media reports is “manufactured and sold by BAC.”
For her part, the CEO of the Hungarian company, Cristiana Barsoni-Arcidiaconu, confirmed in a phone interview with the American NBC network, working with Gold Apollo, but denied having any involvement in manufacturing.
“We don’t make pagers,” she said. “We are just a middleman. You are wrong.”
BIC was founded in 2022 and is registered in Budapest in a two-story building on the outskirts of the Hungarian capital, a woman who was at the company’s website said Wednesday morning.
Barsoni-Arcidiaconu appears to be the company’s only employee, according to legal documents seen by AFP, which also show annual sales of 210 million forints (530,000 euros) with profits of around 45,000 euros.
The company says on its inaccessible website that it “operates internationally as an agent of change with a network of advisors.”
The CEO describes herself as a “strategic advisor to international organizations.”
Investigation in Taiwan
Gold Apollo President Refused Hsu Chin-Kwang Information published by the American newspaper, The New York Times, stated that the company manufactured the devices and sold them to Hezbollah.
The New York Times quoted an unnamed American source and “other” officials as saying that the pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo and that explosive materials were planted inside them sometime before the devices arrived in Lebanon.
The newspaper added, quoting officials, that Israel tampered with these devices before they reached Lebanon by planting a small amount of explosives inside each one.
“These are not our products… These are not our products from start to finish,” Hsu Chin-kwang told reporters in Taipei.
The New York Times reported, citing its sources, that the order received by “Gold Apollo” included about three thousand devices, most of which were of the “AR 924” model.
However, Gold Apollo added that “our company only provides the brand license and is not involved in the design or manufacture of this product.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said the pagers, manufactured by Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, only have a “receiving function” and that their battery capacity is “equivalent to that of a normal AA battery that cannot explode to cause death or injury.”
The ministry added that “after reviewing media reports and photos, we believe there are significant doubts that (the model used) was manufactured by the company,” stressing that there is no record indicating that the company carried out direct exports to Lebanon.
Taiwan’s public prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation. “We have entrusted the matter to the public prosecutor of the national security team… We will clarify the facts as soon as possible, and if we find any illegal actions, they will be severely punished according to the law,” it said in a statement.
A source close to Hezbollah said on Tuesday, requesting anonymity, that the devices that exploded “arrived via a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah containing a thousand devices” and that they appeared to have been “hacked from the source.”
