The British-educated Hungarian businesswoman at the centre of the exploding pager plot was described as ‘vague’ about her company’s activities, according to her former boyfriend.
Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, 49, set up the company bearing her initials in reverse order in May 2022, according to company records.
Despite claims published in the New York Times that the Budapest-based firm was part of a complex web of Mossad shell companies, Ms Bársony-Arcidiacono denied having any knowledge of the plot.
‘I don’t make the beepers. I’m just the intermediary. I think you have misunderstood,’ she told a reporter yesterday before going to ground.
But a former boyfriend described her as less than forthcoming on business matters.
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Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, 49, was described as ‘vague’ about her company’s activities, according to her former boyfriend
‘Whenever I asked about what her business involved, she would never actually say what she was doing, she would just say “trading as usual”, it was always a bit vague,’ he recalled.
Ms Bársony-Arcidiacono was born in Catania, Sicily and her mother Beatrice still lives in Italy, according to friends.
When Cristiana set up her company two years ago, she listed her address as that of her grandmother Borbala, who died three years ago aged 93.
A neighbour of Cristina’s grandmother, retired electrician Mihaly Lovasz, 77, told MailOnline that she wasn’t a regular visitor to the £85,000 8th floor flat in Ujspet, a working class district of the capital.
‘She would come for the occasional Sunday lunch, but not that regularly,’ he said.
‘Since her grandmother died, she comes very rarely to check on the property, but it hasn’t been rented out – it’s been empty since her grandmother died. I think Cristina wanted to live closer to the centre than here.’
Mr Lovasz said that Cristina’s late grandfather, Borbala’s husband, a doctor a director of one of Budapest’s biggest hospitals, the Peterfy Sandor Utca.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
