A Taiwanese manufacturer whose name was on pagers that exploded in Lebanon denies making them. It says a Hungarian company was licensed to design and produce them with their branding.
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00:00The Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says that the pager at the centre of all of this, the
00:05model AR924 with its name on it, was not in fact one of its products.
00:11It says it was made and sold by a company in Hungary called BAC Consulting, which has
00:18a licence to use the Taiwanese brand.
00:21It didn't give any more details about the company, but this is what the founder said
00:27earlier when he spoke to reporters here at the company's headquarters in New Taipei City.
00:57Our officials from Taiwan's economy ministry, they were here at the company earlier.
01:08They said in a statement that they have no record of direct exports to Lebanon and that
01:12they'll be assisting the company in follow-up investigations.
01:17Police officers have been going in and out of the company for several hours and Taipei
01:23prosecutors have said that they're investigating possible illegal activities related to national
01:29security.
01:31This all comes, of course, in relation to official and security sources in Lebanon reportedly
01:38saying that Hezbollah bought more than 3,000 pagers from Gold Apollo.
01:44Now the company's founder, who we heard from earlier, he says that to have the company's
01:49name drawn into this is embarrassing and he insists that the product was not made here
01:55in Taiwan.
01:56Luffy Lee, John Su and Louise Watt in New Taipei City for Taiwan Plus.