Commission ‘looking into’ whether it ever employed exploding-pager firm boss

The European Commission is “looking into” whether it ever employed the head of a Hungarian firm linked to the production of exploding pagers that injured thousands of Hezbollah members.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party, claimed that Israel was behind an attack on Tuesday in which wireless communication devices belonging to its members were remotely detonated, killing 12 people, including two children, and injuring almost 3,000.

The devices had branding consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese pager manufacturing firm. But the Taiwan-based company said in a statement that the AR-924 model used in the attack was manufactured and sold by a Hungarian company called BAC Consulting, which had a license to use Gold Apollo’s brand on the pagers.

European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari on Wednesday denied reports that the CEO of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, was employed at the Commission, experience she lists on her LinkedIn profile, saying she is “not a staff member in any ways at the European Commission.”

However, he did not rule out that she had worked for the Commission via “external providers and consultancies.”

“If the person concerned has ever been involved in one of these activities, this is not something I can reply to now, we are checking, we are looking into it,” he said.

Bársony-Arcidiacono told NBC on Wednesday that her company worked with Gold Apollo but denied responsibility for the exploding pagers.

“I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong,” she said.