Businesswoman at centre of explosive pager plot was ‘vague’ about her company’s activities, ex-boyfriend reveals

The British-educated Hungarian businesswoman at the centre of the pager bombing plot has been described as “lazy” about her company’s activities, according to her ex-boyfriend.

Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, 49, created the company that bears her initials in reverse order in May 2022, according to company records.

Despite claims in the New York Times that the Budapest-based company was part of a complex network of Mossad shell companies, Ms. Bársony-Arcidiacono denied any knowledge of the plot.

“I don’t make the pagers. I’m just the middleman. I think you’ve misunderstood me,” she told a reporter yesterday before going into hiding.

But an ex-boyfriend described her as uncommunicative in business matters.

“Whenever I asked her what her business was, she would never say exactly what she did, she would just say ‘business 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 created her company two years ago, she used the address of her grandmother Borbala, who died three years ago at the age of 93.

A neighbour of Cristina’s grandmother, retired electrician Mihaly Lovasz, 77, told MailOnline that she did not regularly visit the £85,000 eighth-floor flat in Ujspet, a working-class district of the capital.

“She would occasionally come over for Sunday lunch, but not that regularly,” he said.

“Since her grandmother died, she rarely comes to see how the house is, but it is not rented, it has been empty since her grandmother died. I think Cristina wanted to live closer to the center than here.”

Mr Lovasz said Cristina’s late grandfather, Borbala’s husband, was a doctor and director of one of Budapest’s largest hospitals, Peterfy Sandor Utca.