The alleged attack by Israel on Hezbollah members via their pagers in Lebanon has raised fears of a full-scale regional war in the Middle East. Even as Hezbollah has vowed revenge, Israeli forces have been pounding Hezbollah targets in Beirut, Lebanon, via airstrikes, killing their top leader Ibrahim Aqil.
The pager and walkie-talkie explosions, which left around 30 people dead and more than 3,000 injured in Lebanon, have hogged the limelight for the sheer audacity and inventiveness of the attack allegedly planned by Israel's spy agency Mossad. Ironically, the low-tech pagers were ordered by Hezbollah to avoid Israeli surveillance.
The AR-924 pagers, which are at the centre of the storm, were made and sold by a Hungarian firm, BAC Consulting KFT, under the trademarked branding of a Taiwanese pager firm, Gold Apollo. But the latter has denied being involved in the design or production of the devices used in the blasts, saying it had only authorised the use of its trademarked branding. Gold Apollo CEO and founder Hsu Ching-kuan called BAC's financial dealings “strange”, saying the Budapest-based company used a Middle East bank account to transfer funds.
BAC Consulting KFT and its CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono
The Budapest-based company linked to the pager explosions, has reportedly listed more than 100 official functions, including natural gas extraction, sugar and oil production, among others in a corporate registry. It has no physical offices in Budapest, and uses a property in the capital city only as an official address.
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The Hungarian government has reiterated that the pagers were never made in Hungary and that the BAC Consulting was merely acting as an intermediary.
According to the company registry quoted by the AP, BAC Consulting was registered as a limited liability company in May 2022, and raked in USD 725,000 the same year, and followed it up with USD 593,000 next year.
The CEO of the company is Cristiana Brsony-Arcidiacono, a 49-year-old Italian Hungarian woman. There is speculation that the name of the company could be an acronym of her name.
She, reportedly, has a PhD in particle physics and speaks seven languages. She describes herself on LinkedIn as a strategic adviser for organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the CARE humanitarian agency, and venture capital firms. Interestingly, the IAEA said that a person by Brsony-Arcidiacono's name only interned for a few months in 2008 and 2009, according to AP.
She also describes herself as a business developer and a consultant for projects, and says she has also served as one of the directors of the Earth Child Institute, a sustainability group, on her LinkedIn page.
According to social media, Cristiana studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the School of Oriental and African Studies. An Instagram account, reportedly, belonging to her shows her photos and sketches. According to Reuters, there are life sketches of nudes on the walls of her home in Budapest. She was, reportedly, part of a Budapest art club but had not visited it in the past two years.
Reuters quoted a school mate of Cristiana saying she grew up in Santa Venerina, near Catania in eastern Sicily. She, reportedly, worked in Paris and Vienna before moving to Budapest in October 2016.
Despite the doctorate in science, she chose humanitarian work in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, according to reports.
After the link between her company and the pagers was revealed, she told NBC News: "I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong." She has not appeared in public ever since.
Her mother Beatrix told AP that Cristiana is under the protection of the Hungarian secret services after getting threats.