Trail of pager explosions leads to Swiss woman

Research by Norwegian newspaper VG has revealed that a Swiss woman may be involved in the case of the beeper explosions that injured or killed numerous Hezbollah members in September. But does it really exist?

In September, hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon. Very quickly, the attack was attributed to the Israeli secret services. Shortly after, the first clues seemed to point to a Hungarian company.

The Ellenberg Trading company

But Norwegian journalists have now discovered that a company registered in Hong Kong under the name ‘Ellenberg Trading’ had transferred millions to the company in Hungary via a Bulgarian company. Hong Kong Company Register lists founder and owner as a Swiss woman named P. Ellenbergwho reportedly lives in the center of Zurich – according to company documents.

Research carried out by the Norwegian newspaper VG, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Tamedia, however, casts doubt on the very existence of P. Ellenberg. Tamedia journalists went to the address in Zurich, but found no trace of a person of that name there. Instead, there was a Vietnamese restaurant and a nail salon. As for doorbells and mailboxes, one searches in vain for the name of P. Ellenberg. The people in the neighborhood have never heard of this person or this company.

No trace of P. Ellenberg

According to the Post Office, no P. Ellenberg is registered at this address and the tax administration even states that there is no woman with this name in the entire canton. There are no social media accounts or any other digital traces. The Ellenberg Trading website does not mention other names of possible collaborators. There are no addresses or contact details there either.

Another look at Ellenberg Trading’s Hong Kong address shows that this is a company that helps others set up businesses and take care of the necessary paperwork with the authorities.

The Norwegian journalists also discovered that Ellenberg Trading had transferred around 1.4 million francs to a company in Bulgaria, which in turn forwarded it to the Hungarian beeper company. The Bulgarian company is owned by a Norwegian who was in the United States at the time of the pager explosions – since then he has not returned home and is missing.

Research by Norwegian newspaper VG has revealed that a Swiss woman may be involved in the case of the beeper explosions that injured or killed numerous Hezbollah members in September. But does it really exist?

In September, hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon. Very quickly, the attack was attributed to the Israeli secret services. Shortly after, the first clues seemed to point to a Hungarian company.