Gold Apollo says Budapest-based BAC makes model of pagers used in Lebanon attacks

By Ben Blanchard

NEW TAIPEI, Taiwan (Reuters) – The pager models used in the Lebanon blasts were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting, Taiwanese pager maker Gold Apollo said on Wednesday, adding that it had only licensed its brand to the company and was not involved in producing the devices.

At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured when pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously in Lebanon on Tuesday. The explosives inside the devices were planted by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, according to a senior Lebanese security source and another source.

Photos of the destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed that their format and the stickers on the back matched the format of pagers manufactured by Gold Apollo.

“The product wasn’t ours. It just had our brand on it,” Gold Apollo founder and chairman Hsu Ching-kuang told reporters Wednesday at the company’s offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei.

The company said in a statement that the AR-924 model was manufactured and sold by BAC.

The statement said Gold Apollo had authorized “BAC to use our brand trademark to sell products in certain regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products is solely handled by BAC.”

Reuters calls and emails to BAC on Wednesday morning went unanswered.

Hsu previously said there were problems with money transfers from the company.

“The transfer was very strange,” he said, adding that the payments came through the Middle East. He did not elaborate.

Hezbollah fighters have begun using pagers in the belief that they will avoid Israeli tracking of their location, two sources familiar with the group’s operations told Reuters this year.

Hsu said he did not know how the pagers could have been rigged to explode.

While Hsu was meeting with reporters, police officers arrived at the company. Officials from Taiwan’s Ministry of Commerce also visited Gold Apollo.

The ministry said in a statement there was no evidence of direct export of pagers from Taiwan to Lebanon.

Hsu also added that Gold Apollo was the victim of the incident and plans to sue the licensee.

“We may not be a big company, but we are a responsible company,” he said. “It’s very embarrassing.”

(Reporting: Ben Blanchard; Writing: Miyoung Kim; Editing: Michael Perry and Edwina Gibbs)