The woman whose company was connected to thousands of people beepers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria this week is under the protection of the Hungarian secret service, her mother told The Associated Press on Friday.
Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono has not appeared in public since the fatal simultaneous attack on her. Iranian-backed Hezbollah on Tuesday and that has been widely attributed to Israel. She is listed as the CEO of Budapest-based BAC Consulting, which the Taiwanese trademark owner of the pagers said responsible for the production of the devices.
Her mother, Beatrix Bársony-Arcidiacono, told the AP that her daughter had received unknown threats and “is currently in a safe place, protected by the Hungarian secret service.”
“The Hungarian secret service advised her not to talk to the media,” she said by telephone from Sicily.
Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono via Facebook/via REUTERS
Hungary’s national security authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the AP could not independently verify the claim.
Two days of attacks this week, first targeted pagers and then walkie-talkieskilled at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000, including civilians. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono’s company came under fire after Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm, said it had given BAC Consulting permission to use its name on the pagers used in the first attack, but that the Hungarian company was responsible for the production and design.
A Hungarian government spokesman said Wednesday that the pagers delivered to Hezbollah were never in Hungary and that BAC Consulting acted only as an intermediary.
Beatrix Bársony-Arcidiacono, who also uses the name Beatrice, agreed.
“She was not involved in any way, she was just a broker. The items did not go through Budapest. … They were not produced in Hungary,” she said.
BAC Consulting shares the ground floor of a modest building in Budapest with numerous other companies, but has no physical offices and uses the space in the Hungarian capital – like the other companies based there – only as an official address, according to a woman who emerged from the building earlier this week and asked not to be named.
The company’s website said it specialized in “environment, development and international affairs.” Its business register listed 118 official functions, including sugar and oil production, jewelry retailing and natural gas extraction.
The company brought in $725,000 in revenue in 2022 and $593,000 in 2023, according to company records. Last year, the company spent nearly $324,000, or about 55% of its revenue, on “equipment.”
Corporate records accessed by CBS News from the Hungarian Ministry of Justice show that BAC Consulting was registered as a company in May 2022.
Beatrix Bársony-Arcidiacono said her daughter was born in Sicily and studied at the University of Catania before earning a Ph.D. in London. She worked in Paris and Vienna before moving to Budapest in October 2016 to care for her elderly grandmother.
On social media, the younger Bársony-Arcidiacono describes herself as a strategic consultant and business developer who has worked for major international organizations and venture capital firms. Her company’s website states that she has a doctorate in physics.
The 49-year-old received the degree from University College London, where she enrolled in the early to mid-2000s, according to her LinkedIn page. There, she worked with Ákos Kövér, a Hungarian physicist and now-retired professor, who confirmed her enrollment.
Kövér said in an email to the AP: “We also published some joint articles at the time. I am not aware of her other activities.”
She interned at the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2008 and 2009, which was confirmed by the agency, and once co-authored a paper for a UNESCO conference on groundwater management.
On her social media accounts she posted photos from France, the United Kingdom and other places, mostly selfies or photos of places she said she visited. Few friends commented on her posts, some invited her to come over or commented on her appearance.
She speaks English, French, Italian and Hungarian, according to her social media, where she has occasionally made comments criticizing Ukraine or expressing support for the children in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had “targeted attack” in Beirut on Friday, killing at least eight people, including Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
The United States had previously offered a “reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest and/or conviction” of Aqil, who it said was a leader of Hezbollah in the 1980s when the group claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
The White House previously warned both Israel and Hezbollah against “escalation of any kind” following this week’s explosions of the synchronized pagers and walkie-talkies, but overnight Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah continues to fire back.
