Gold Apollo States Budapest-Based BAC Develops Model of Pagers Used in Lebanon Blasts, Reports Reuters

By Ben Blanchard

NEW TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwanese pager manufacturer Gold Apollo stated on Wednesday that the pagers involved in recent detonations in Lebanon were produced by Budapest-based BAC Consulting. Gold Apollo clarified that it had merely licensed its brand to BAC and was not involved in the manufacturing of the devices.

On Tuesday, simultaneous explosions from these pagers killed at least nine people and injured nearly 3,000 in Lebanon. Sources indicate that explosives within the devices were allegedly planted by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

Images of the damaged pagers reviewed indicated consistent features with those produced by Gold Apollo, including specific formats and branding stickers.

Hsu Ching-kuang, founder and president of Gold Apollo, emphasized, "The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," during a press briefing at the company’s offices in New Taipei.

Gold Apollo’s statement clarified that the AR-924 model was entirely produced and sold by BAC. "We authorized BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC," the statement noted.

Attempts to reach BAC for comments went unanswered on Wednesday morning. Hsu revealed there had been issues with remittances from BAC, describing the payments as "very strange," and noted they came from the Middle East without further details.

According to two sources familiar with Hezbollah’s operations, the group had started using pagers to evade Israeli tracking. Hsu expressed uncertainty about how the pagers could have been modified to explode.

During Hsu’s media interaction, local police and officials from Taiwan’s economy ministry visited Gold Apollo. The ministry confirmed in a statement that there was no record of direct pager exports from Taiwan to Lebanon.

Hsu indicated that Gold Apollo was a victim in this situation and planned to take legal action against its licensee, stating, "We may not be a large company but we are a responsible one. This is very embarrassing."