Deadly simultaneous explosions triggered by hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon have thrust a little-known Taiwanese electronics maker into the global spotlight after its damaged products were identified in images following the attack.
At Gold Apollo’s discreet offices on the outskirts of the Taiwanese capital, company founder Hsu Ching-kuang vehemently denied on Wednesday (18) having manufactured the pagers used in the mass attack.
He claimed the devices were manufactured by a European company that had licensed his brand.
“Of course I feel like a victim,” Hsu told reporters shortly before police arrived to conduct an investigation.
“I’ve been running my business for 30 years, why am I suddenly involved in this?”
Multiple photos from Tuesday’s (17) attacks appear to show damaged pagers bearing the Gold Apollo brand, increasing scrutiny on the company, especially after the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources, that Israel hid explosives inside the devices and added a switch to each one, later used to detonate them remotely.
Pager production is highly regulated in Taiwan due to their broadcasting functions, with authorities conducting regular inspections, a Taiwanese security official told CNN on Wednesday (18).
The Gold Apollo pagers met all standards and nothing unusual was found, according to the official, who did not provide further details about the inspection.
Authorities are also investigating the company’s claim that production was outsourced to Europe, he added.
Since its founding in 1995, Gold Apollo has manufactured a wide range of devices, from pagers — wireless devices that can send messages without an internet connection, commonly used by emergency services and hospitals — to buzzers used by restaurants, according to the company’s website.
It works with distributors around the world to sell its products, according to a previous media report, already promoting itself as one of the largest suppliers of walkie-talkies and pagers in the US and Europe, counting intelligence agencies and emergency services among its customers.
Hsu said on Wednesday that the pagers identified in news reports in Lebanon were manufactured and sold by a European partner, which established a relationship with his company about three years ago.
In a statement issued later, Gold Apollo identified the distributor, a Budapest-based company called BAC Consulting, and said it had licensed its brand for sales in designated regions.
“The design and manufacture of the products are the exclusive responsibility of BAC,” the note said.
THE CNN attempted to contact BAC through the website provided by Gold Apollo to reporters.
Explosive Pagers
According to images on Lebanese social media, at least one pager shown in the scene was identified as the Gold Apollo AR924 model, described as a compact, waterproof device that uses a rechargeable lithium battery, according to product information on the company’s website.
Gold Apollo said in its statement that the AR924 pager was manufactured and sold by BAC under a licensing agreement. The company declined to provide the agreement. CNN .
Hsu said that at the beginning of the relationship with the European partner, the company only imported the Taiwanese company’s pagers and communication products. The company later told Gold Apollo that it wanted to manufacture its own pagers and applied for the right to use its brand, he added.
Hsu said Gold Apollo found at least one anomaly in its dealings with the European company, citing a bank transfer that took too long to complete.
“We may not be a big company, but we are responsible,” he said. “This is very shameful.”
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Gold Apollo exported about 260,000 pagers from the island, mainly to the United States and Australia, between early 2022 and August 2024.
Taipei has no record of Gold Apollo pagers being sent to Lebanon, the ministry said in a statement, adding it would continue to investigate.
Low-tech devices
The AR924 model is not available for sale in Taiwan, according to the Taiwanese security official.
Taiwanese telecommunications companies shut down pager services in 2011, due to a sharp decline in usage with the growing popularity of mobile phones.
The AR924 is also not available in the United States, a representative for the company’s U.S. distributor told CNN .
The low-tech nature of the pagers appeared to be an attraction for Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon.
Earlier this year, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah urged members and their families in the south of the country, where fighting with Israeli forces along the border has been intense, to get rid of their cellphones, believing that Israel could track the movements of the Iran-backed terror network through such devices.
Hsu founded Gold Apollo with T$100 million ($3.1 million) in capital in 1995, according to Taiwan’s corporate registry.
At the time, pagers – known locally as “BB calls” – were all the rage on the island.
But the end of paging services by phone companies prompted the company to shift its focus from the domestic market to overseas, he told Taiwan’s Commonwealth magazine in a 2011 interview.
Gold Apollo soon dominated pager markets in Western countries, the magazine said.
Most of the demand for its pagers came from intelligence agencies, firefighting services and defense departments in the U.S. and Europe, including the FBI, the magazine reported.
This content was originally published in What we know about the Taiwanese company involved with explosive pagers in Lebanon on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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