As mystery continues over the disappearance of Kerala-born Norwegian citizen Rinson Jose following the Lebanon pager blasts, Norta Global Limited owned by him received Norwegian krone (NOK) 18 million (Rs 14.31 crore) from a bank in Israel, reported Norway-based news outlet Verdens Gang (VG).
According to the VG report, the payment was received for services offered by Norta Global to a company in Hong Kong. However, VG accessed documents which showed that the money was credited to Norta Global's account from an account in an Israeli bank.
Onmanorama spoke to Hakon Fostervold Hoydal, an investigative journalist with VG who has accessed and verified the documents, and he said that the money was received for multiple invoices generated over a period of two years. The trail of money was also linked to Hungarian company named BAC Consulting. The money that came into the Norwegian company then went directly to another company in Hungary, BAC Consulting, VG reported.
BAC Consulting has been linked to the explosion of pagers in Lebanon and Cristiana Barsony Arcidiacono is the CEO of Budapest-based BAC Consulting. The company came under probe after Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo said it had authorized the use of trademark on pagers which exploded in Lebanon but the devices were manufactured by BAC Consulting, according to CBS news.
According to Hungarian news website Telex, Arcidiacono during an interview with the intelligence sleuths said that Norta Global Limited placed the orders for the beepers and the devices were delivered to the customer directly from Hong Kong. Arcidiacono had told NBC News that she did not make the pagers and said she was just the intermediate.
"From our investigation we have scrutinized documents to prove that money was transacted between Israeli bank and Norta Global which was then transferred to Hungarian company. We have also verified this information from documents with our sources," Hakon told Onmanorama. He said that they are awaiting a confirmation from the Israeli bank. It is also not clear who owned the account in the Israeli bank from which money was transferred to Norta Global. Onmanorama couldn't verify the documents independently. He also said that the nature of documents accessed by him can't be disclosed owing to the sensitive nature of the matter. "Documents we have indicate that the money was paid to Norta Global for services done for the Hong Kong company and it came from an Israeli bank account. We are still working hard to uncover the nature of the HK company, its owners and connections to the Israeli bank account. This is an ongoing story," said Hakon.
Meanwhile, after Oslo police district issued a missing notice for Rinson Jose, the Norwegian police security service has also opened an investigation in Norway related to the case.
Documents showed that Norta Global was incorporated in 2022 in Bulgaria and it had the signature of Rinson as the sole proprietor. BBC Verify also reported based on scrutiny of BAC's company records that this company was also incorporated in 2022. According to VG, Rinson is believed to have left the US.
