'BAC Consulting': The Shell Company in Hungary Supplying Exploding Devices to Hezbollah

After accusing the Taiwanese pager firm Gold Apollo of supplying explosive devices in Lebanon, the company said the devices that exploded in Lebanon—killing 20 members of Hezbollah and 12 civilians on September 17 and 18, 2024—were supplied by BAC Consulting in Hungary, and Gold Apollo had no connection to their manufacture or distribution.

A series of investigative reports conducted by foreign newspapers, following visits to the headquarters of BAC Consulting in Hungary, concluded that this company, which supplied the devices to Hezbollah, is a shell entity that was established in 2022 and employs only one person.

The alleged headquarters of the company displays signs for several other businesses, while the company’s president resides on the eighth floor of a regular residential building. The company's website was disabled after its role was exposed, further confirming that it is fictitious and suspicious.

This operation confirmed what is already known: Hungary and Eastern Europe are a “backyard” for Israeli intelligence (Mossad), raising possibilities that Mossad bribed some factory workers to plant explosives, or to have them planted in Budapest after receiving the devices from the Taiwanese company, acting as their branch.

This raised questions about the reliability of the intelligence capabilities of Hezbollah and Iran. Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, implicitly acknowledged during a speech on September 19, 2024, that these capabilities have deteriorated, when he described the massacre of pager and wireless as a “big and unprecedented blow in the history of the resistance in Lebanon.”

‘Trojan Horse’

In Lebanon, as Israel picked off senior Hezbollah commandos with targeted assassinations, their leader came to a conclusion: If Israel was going high-tech, Hezbollah would go low. It was clear, a distressed Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said, that Israel was using cellphone networks to pinpoint the locations of his operatives.

“You ask me where is the agent,” Mr. Nasrallah told his followers in a publicly televised address in February. 

“I tell you that the phone in your hands, in your wife’s hands, and in your children’s hands is the agent.” Then he issued a plea.

“Bury it,” Mr. Nasrallah said. “Put it in an iron box and lock it.”

He had been pushing for years for Hezbollah to invest instead in pagers, which for all their limited capabilities could receive data without giving away a user’s location or other compromising information, according to The New York Times.

Hezbollah's rush for Pager and Icom wireless devices instead of internet-connected devices (such as mobile phones) presented Israeli intelligence officials with an opportunity, leading them to devise a plan to create a fictitious company that would present itself as an international manufacturer of pagers.

It seems that BAC Consulting was a Hungary-based firm contracted to manufacture the devices for the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo.

In reality, it served as an Israeli front, as stated by three intelligence officers familiar with the operation. They indicated that at least two additional shell companies were established to conceal the true identities of those involved in producing the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.

All of this was part of an Israeli initiative aimed at infiltrating the supply chain of Hezbollah's communication devices.

Israeli intelligence officers confirmed that the Hungarian company, affiliated with Mossad, operated normally, supplying devices to ordinary clients until it encountered the lucrative target and sole significant client: Hezbollah, for whom it produced and supplied these explosive devices.

As a “fictitious company” under Mossad, it executed a meticulous ruse, manufacturing explosive devices specifically for Hezbollah, effectively introducing a “Trojan Horse” into Hezbollah's strongholds, as per The New York Times.

The newspaper reported that “Israel” successfully transformed advanced technology into “a modern-day Trojan Horse,” using it with remarkable precision in its ongoing conflict against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Produced separately, Hezbollah pagers contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers. Thousands of these devices reached Lebanon, where they were distributed among Hezbollah officers and their allies.

Thus, detonating them became as simple as pressing a button from Mossad agents.

“Israel had a hand in the manufacturing of pagers that exploded on Hezbollah operatives this week, with this type of ‘supply chain interdiction’ operation having been planned for at least 15 years,” a U.S. intelligence source confirmed to ABC News.

Intelligence Front

According to Hebrew Channel 13 on September 19, 2024, the company accused of being a front for Mossad in Hungary, which deceived Hezbollah, is linked to a woman holding both Italian and Hungarian citizenship, Cristiana Barsony, whose name has been associated with the “pager massacre” that shook Lebanon.

Barsony claimed through her social media account (which she deleted after being discovered) that she is an academic in particle physics, speaking seven languages.

She stated that she holds two master's degrees from the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies and has worked for UNESCO, the European Commission, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In 2021, Barsony contracted with the Taiwanese firm Golden Power to design and sell the AR924 pager devices, supplying them to Lebanon. After they exploded in the recent massacre in Lebanon, achieving their intended purpose, she suddenly disappeared, closed her offices, and deleted her online accounts.

Western newspapers confirmed that she managed the fictitious consulting and supply company as a branch of the Taiwanese company from her base in Budapest, achieving revenues of $800,000 in 2023 alone.

On September 18, 2024, Aestetica questioned whether Cristiana Barsony, accused of supplying explosive devices to Hezbollah, is a killer responsible for killing and maiming hundreds or a victim ensnared in a deadly game orchestrated by Mossad, which infiltrated the products she facilitated selling to Hezbollah and rigged them with explosives.

In a tersely worded public statement, she said, “I have no ties to Mossad or any intelligence agency. These are baseless accusations meant to vilify me and distract from the truth.” 

However, she failed to convince those accusing her of collaborating with Mossad, as the infiltration of the pager devices she exported could only result from a complex operation and manipulation to embed explosives, which could only occur through a front company, according to Aestetica on September 18, 2024.

Despite the discussions about her dubious role, Cristiana continued to assert her innocence, claiming she did not manufacture the pager devices and she was merely an intermediary.

Aestetica expressed skepticism about her rapid ascent to CEO of BAC Consulting, deeming it a suspicious matter that raises questions about “how someone could climb so high” when she had not achieved anything significant in her life.

The website suggested that her company's sudden emergence as a key player in conflict areas of the Middle East indicates she is either involved in espionage and military collusion with Israeli intelligence or merely a pawn manipulated unwittingly by the Israeli Occupation.

Adding to the mystery, the registered office of the two-story company did not conduct visible operations, and the company was entangled in high-stakes geopolitical conflicts. Its website was taken down, raising doubts about whether it was real or just a front for something more sinister.

A Suspicious Image

On September 18, 2024, Radio Free Europe revealed something strange about the fictitious company’s headquarters in Budapest.

It confirmed that the company accused of manufacturing the pager devices used in the deadly attack on Hezbollah “only one employee working from an empty office that offers a range of services but not pager manufacturing.”

This means it had no manufacturing capabilities, and in exchange for using the logo of the Taiwanese company, it was making payments through financial transfers from the Middle East (originating from Mossad) while receiving shipments and distributing them.

The purpose was achieved when it received an order from an adversary (such as Hezbollah, Iran, or Yemen) and embedded specific materials (listening or detonation devices, etc.) in Budapest, far from the parent Taiwanese company.

Since it presented itself as a “consulting company,” ABC News reported that a spokesperson for the Hungarian government stated that the pager devices were never manufactured or transferred to Hungary and that the company was merely a trading intermediary with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary.

However, the founder and CEO of Gold Apollo, based in Taiwan, Hsu Ching-Kuang, stated that the company did not manufacture the devices used in the attack; instead, they were produced by BAC Consulting, located in Budapest, which holds a license to use their trademark.

This raises questions about whether the manufacturing occurred in “Israel” and was then suspiciously supplied through the fictitious Israeli company acting as an agent for the Thai company, using convoluted methods until it reached Hezbollah.

In a statement regarding recent media reports about the AR-924 communication device, Gold Apollo clarified that this model is produced and sold by BAC Consulting, based in Budapest.

They added that this Hungarian company has a license to use the Gold Apollo brand, and they only provide brand licensing; they have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product.

“I can guarantee you they were not our products,” said Ray Novak, a senior sales manager for Icom’s amateur radio division, in an interview Wednesday at a trade show in Providence, Rhode Island.

Novak explained that the Icom V-82 model seen in Lebanon has not been in production for years and was originally designed for amateur radio use in social and emergency communications, such as weather tracking.

No Alternative

Taysir Balbisi, a human resources consultant, noted that “what happened provides a clear picture of how Mossad operates in the technology sector and in supplying communication devices, confirming that a boycott of Western devices is no longer an option.”

“Israeli intelligence establishes companies in Europe, America, and possibly some Arab countries, then contacts technology manufacturers and offers to market their products in Europe and the Middle East as a very large and attractive market,” Balbisi said on X.

These companies, affiliated with Mossad, propose to global firms the option to manufacture in the Middle East, often within “Israel.” They condition this on the placement of the original companies' trademarks while enticing them with lower manufacturing and transportation costs, which increases the parent company's profits.

The human resources expert explains that the alternative “Mossad company” becomes a representative of the parent company, marketing these products under the name of the Taiwanese, Chinese, or other brands to Arab nations and institutions.

When an order is received from a potentially “hostile entity like Hezbollah, Iran, Yemen, or others,” they proceed with manufacturing and embedding specialized devices, whether for surveillance or explosive purposes, among others.

This means that the equipment or devices purchased by Arab entities are completely under Mossad's control, allowing them to decide when to execute missions assigned by political authorities.

Therefore, Balbisi urges various countries that have acquired devices from similar front companies to inspect all purchased equipment, including mobile phones, computers, switches, microwaves, fiber optics, and even modern vehicles, particularly electric ones with electronic systems that could easily be transformed into explosive devices.

He emphasizes that “boycotting is no longer an option; we must invent alternatives under the supervision of trusted scientists with real security. There is no substitute for locally owning and producing technology from the ground up, and we must boycott everything imported from the West, which we bought with our money and then turned into weapons in their hands.”