## Hungarian Company Suspected of Manufacturing Exploding Pagers for Hezbollah

A one-person Hungarian company, BAC Consulting, may have manufactured the pagers, likely filled with explosives, that were involved in a series of explosions that rocked Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. BAC Consulting is officially an extremely successful consulting firm, but numerous characteristics strongly suggest that this was not its actual activity[1][2].

On Tuesday around 3:30 pm local time, thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah fighters simultaneously exploded in Lebanon and Syria. At least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, have been killed in the series of explosions, and nearly 3,000 have been injured. Lebanese authorities suspect the Israeli intelligence service is behind the operation[1][2].

The descriptions indicate that the personal pagers, typically carried in the victims' pockets or belts, exploded one after the other for about an hour, making sounds like fireworks or gunshots. Fearing the Israeli intelligence service, Hezbollah warned its members in February this year not to use mobile phones, according to the BBC. They then switched to using pagers, with this new type recently coming into use[1][2].

According to a former British Army explosives expert who spoke anonymously to the BBC, such a series of explosions likely required 10-20 grams of military-grade explosives to be placed in each pager, disguised as a small component. This could then be remotely detonated, for example by sending a special message sequence to the pagers[1][2].

The affected pagers were AR-924 models from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. However, the founder and chairman of Gold Apollo said the products in question were not manufactured by them, but only had the brand name added over the past three years. They claim the product was designed and manufactured by a Budapest company, BAC Consulting Kft[1][2].

There is only one company called BAC Consulting Kft. in Hungary, but it was only established two years ago. Its sole owner and employee, 49-year-old B.-A. Cristiana, is registered at an 8th floor apartment in a housing block in Újpest. Prior to founding the company, B.-A. Cristiana operated as a sole proprietor from the Újpest apartment since March 2021. The woman was previously also registered as a sole proprietor in France[1][2].

*B.-A. Cristiana Rosaria officially directed her one-person consulting firm with revenues of several hundred million forints from the 8th floor of this housing block.*[1] The headquarters of BAC Consulting is at a registered office provider in Zugló, whose employee told Szabad Európa that ## they have never met any employee of BAC Consulting,

only forwarding their mail, about one letter per month. In contrast, the company's LinkedIn profile listed a downtown address as the headquarters, at Rákóczi út 25[1][2].

The company's main activity is business consulting, but it also included the manufacture of telecommunications equipment among its many activities, alongside hairdressing and oil extraction. The one-person consulting firm was officially extremely successful even in the year of its establishment, achieving revenues of over 250 million forints, and last year also reported revenues of over 200 million forints[1][2].

However, it is unusual for a one-person consulting firm to ### report an asset inventory of more than one hundred million forints in its annual report last year[1][2].

It is also unusual that as a one-person consulting firm, despite the huge revenues, it only reported a very modest profit of just over ten million forints in both closed years of its operation[1][2].

B.-A. Cristiana's personal LinkedIn profile and the company website appear detailed but are actually completely superficial, confusing or conspicuously non-specific about exactly who or what projects she might have worked on. We inquired with several of B.-A. Cristiana's LinkedIn contacts, who responded that they had never personally seen her, and she had written to them in Hungarian at the time of founding her company, requesting to be connected[1][2].

While her company has a working corporate email address on the website, in the company report she provided a Gmail address as the official email contact. These are signs that BAC Consulting may not have actually been an extremely successful one-person consulting firm, but likely had some other activity[1][2].

Szabad Európa has addressed several questions separately to the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about whether they are launching an investigation into the matter, whether any state agency had a connection with this company, or what security risks there might be if the pagers used in the series of explosions were indeed manufactured in Hungary. We will publish their responses if they respond[1][2].

We also contacted B.-A. Cristiana at her available email addresses with our questions, after the officially provided company phone number turned out to be that of the registered office provider. We will also publish her response if she responds[1][2].