Owner of exploding pager firm under Hungarian protection, mother says

The woman whose company has been linked to thousands of pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria this week is under the protection of the Hungarian secret services, her mother has said.

Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono has not appeared publicly since the deadly simultaneous attack that targeted Hezbollah on Tuesday and that has been widely blamed on Israel.

She is listed as the CEO of Budapest-based BAC Consulting, which the Taiwanese trademark holder of the pagers said was responsible for the manufacture of the devices.

Her mother, Beatrix Bársony-Arcidiacono, told the AP on Friday that her daughter had received unspecified threats and "is currently in a safe place protected by the Hungarian secret services".

"Hungarian secret services advised her not to talk to media," she said by phone from Sicily.

Hungary's national security authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Euronews could not independently verify the claim.

Two days of attacks this week, first targeting pagers and then walkie-talkies, have killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000, including civilians. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blamed Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono's company came under scrutiny after Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm, said it had authorised BAC Consulting to use its name on the pagers that were used in the first attack, but that the Hungarian company was responsible for manufacturing and design.

On Wednesday, a Hungarian government spokesman said the pagers delivered to Hezbollah were never in Hungary, and that BAC Consulting merely acted as an intermediary.

Beatrix Bársony-Arcidiacono, who also uses the name Beatrice, echoed that.

"She is not involved in any way, she was just a broker," she said. "The items did not pass through Budapest ... They were not produced in Hungary."

BAC Consulting shares the ground floor of a modest building in Budapest with numerous other enterprises but has no physical offices and uses the property in Hungary's capital — like the other companies based there — only as an official address, according to a woman who emerged from the building earlier this week and refused to be named.

The company's website said it specialised in "environment, development, and international affairs". The corporate registry listed 118 official functions, including sugar and oil production, retail jewellery sales and natural gas extraction.

It brought in around €650,000 in revenue in 2022 and some €593,000 in 2023, according to the company registry. Last year, the company spent nearly €290,000, or around 55% of its revenue, on "equipment".

The company's website has been unavailable since Wednesday.

A cross-European career

Beatrix Bársony-Arcidiacono said her daughter was born in Sicily and studied at the University of Catania there before pursuing a PhD in London. She worked in Paris and Vienna before moving to Budapest in October 2016 to care for her elderly grandmother.

In May 2022, she incorporated the company at the heart of the mystery of the pagers.

On social media, the younger Bársony-Arcidiacono describes herself as a strategic adviser and business developer with a doctorate who has worked for major international organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the CARE humanitarian agency, as well as for venture capital firms.

The 49-year-old received her PhD from University College London, where she was enrolled in the early to mid-2000s, according to her LinkedIn page. There, she worked with Ákos Kövér, a Hungarian physicist and now-retired professor, who confirmed her enrollment.

Kövér said of Bársony-Arcidiacono in an email to the AP: "At the time, we also published some joint articles. I am not aware of her other activities, as far as I know she has not done any scientific work since then."