Lebanon blasts: An Indian-born tech entrepreneur who reportedly helped Israel source the pagers used to target members of the Hezbollah militant group went missing on the day of the attacks and has not been heard from since, according to media reports. Rinson Jose, 39, was named as the owner of a Bulgarian shell company that reportedly paid British-educated intermediary Cristiana Arcidiacono-Barsony 1.3 million euros as part of a complex Mossad-orchestrated deal to obtain the pagers.
In two days of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded. The total death toll in those attacks has risen to 39, and more than 3,000 were injured. The attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement. An earlier report claimed Mossad had obtained the Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah months ago.
Jose, who moved to Oslo in 2015 after working for an immigration advisory firm in London for two years, reportedly left on a pre-planned business trip on Tuesday, according to Daily Mail. The bosses at his primary employer, Norwegian media conglomerate NHST, have been unable to reach him since - and reportedly contacted Norway’s domestic intelligence service on Wednesday after becoming aware of his links to the pager blasts.
Was Jose aware of the plot to detonate pagers?
Oslo Police District has announced that they have "launched preliminary investigations into the information that has come to light" after Jose's mysterious disappearance was reported. "We are aware of the information, but have no comment on the matter as of now," said spokesperson Unni Grøndal.
Jose's company Norta Global, registered in Bulgaria, is believed to have supplied the pager explosives to Lebanon. The pagers are said to be manufactured by a Hungarian firm, BAC Consulting, under the trademark of Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo, as per the images of the exploded devices. So far, there is no indication that suggests that Jose was aware of a specific plot to equip the pagers with explosives or that the buyer was collaborating with Israeli security services.
The shell company was registered to an apartment building in Budapest that is home to nearly 200 other firms. One of Norta Global's partners is the Mamram Association, which was set up by former commanders of an elite cyber unit within the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to help find the next generation of Israeli tech talent. One of Jose's friends expressed shock upon learning his apparent link with the pager blasts.
Jose's previous work
For two years between 2013 and 2015, Jose was employed at London-based marketing firm Levetron Ltd as business development manager. A spokesman for the company said he vaguely recalled the name and believed he was now in Norway. Jose founded NortaLink, a firm described as "an innovative consulting, outsourcing, recruiting, and technology services company", in 2016.
"My entire network liked him. He saved his hair for many years to be able to donate it to cancer patients. That's the kind of person I experienced him to be," she told Norwegian media. Jose's relatives said they trusted him and he will be not involved in the Lebanon pager blasts.
“We speak daily over the phone. However, for the last three days, we have had no contact with Jose. He is a straightforward person and we trust him fully. He will not be part of any wrongdoing. He may have been trapped in these blasts,” Thankachen, a relative of Jose, was quoted as saying by IANS.
Who was behind the blasts?
Authorities in Taiwan and Bulgaria on Friday denied involvement in the supply chain of thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon, amid a hunt for answers has involved Taiwan, Bulgaria, Norway and Romania. Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Hungary-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced had a licence to use its brand.
Hungarian intelligence services have conducted several interviews with the CEO of BAC Consulting, the government said on Saturday. Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of BAC Consulting, told NBC News earlier this week that she did not make the pagers and said she was "just the intermediate."
Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government also said earlier that BAC Consulting was "a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary". Iran-aligned Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the detonations. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since conflict in Gaza erupted last October.
(with agency inputs)
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