Want to find out what your competitors are planning? Are your new international business partners legitimate? 

     If you think these questions require a spy, Fred Rustmann is your man. Rustmann, 54, is founder and chairman of West Palm Beach-based CTC International Group, Ltd., a business intelligence consulting and investigation firm. 

     Not incidentally, Rustmann is also a former clandestine operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency who spent most of his 24-year career overseas. "I went out and recruited spies," he says. 

     After retiring from the CIA in 1990, Rustmann consulted for an oil exploration firm operating in Ethiopia. Last year, he formally opened CTC International, tapping former CIA colleagues in the United States and overseas for his staff. Rustmann expects revenues of $500,000.00 this year and says the firm has been profitable from the start. 

     Though CTC International will do risk analysis, investigations of leaked or stolen proprietary information and market analysis, much of the work is due diligence. 

     What sets CTC International apart from the others? "Internationally, we knock them out of the ballpark," he says.