When Robert Allena phones a Fortune 500 company, he has 20 seconds to get a prospective client’s attention. But Mr. Allena has a great opening line.

     “Sometimes, when you say you’re CIA, there’s a pause on the phone. Or they just say, ‘You’re kidding?’” he says.

     Once pre-occupied with the Cold War, former spies like Mr. Allena now make cold calls. He is heading up a New York push for CTC International Group, the only boutique security firm entirely staffed by ex-CIA field operatives.

     Several small firms like CTC are going head-to-head with industry giants like Kroll Associates Inc. to snare clients in New York, one of the most fertile grounds for the kinds of international headquarters that require sleuthing services. Competitors include other boutiques, big accounting firms, lawyers and industry leader Kroll.

     CTC’s trump card: its unique staffing.

     In New York, CTC’s clients so far include a major holding company and an international banking corporation that needed overseas counter-intelligence work.

     Like its competitors - many of which also employ ex-CIA agents - CTC performs risk analyses on foreign locations and arranges introductions to key political, business or military players. It does due diligence on companies under consideration as partners or acquisitions, and performs counter-intelligence, ferreting out sources of leaks of proprietary company information.

     Because of its ex-spy ranks, CTC tackles a company’s foreign problems with a unique perspective.

     “It’s true attraction is the contacts it has internationally with former CIA agents that can provide information beyond data bases. They find out reputations, and do it confidentially by talking to the right people,” says Sandy Sandquist, director of corporate security for Grand Metropolitan/Pillsbury. He adds the information was of better quality and cheaper than similar work by CTC’s larger competitors.

     Another client, a director of the Latin American region for a division of a Fortune 500 company, hired CTC to find suitable partners for a new distribution strategy. 

     “They rolled up their sleeves and got the in-the-trenches data you want,” he says.

     Since the North American Free Trade Agreement passed, many of CTC’s assignments have involved Latin America, as U.S. companies seek partners and takeover targets.

     One client explains that in Mexico, some companies can keep multiple sets of books: for the tax people, the government, outsiders - and the real numbers. “CTC sorted out the fluff and got the real picture. Their number one pick (for a distributor) was absolutely an extraordinary fit.”

   Part of Mr. Allena’s job as director of African and European operations is to convince more New York companies of CTC’s capabilities.

     Before leaving the CIA in February, Mr. Allena worked undercover for 15 years. The end of the Cold War, he felt, left few career options with the CIA except a bureaucratic post in Washington. So in June he joined CTC, formed in 1992 by another ex-operative, Frederick W. Rustmann Jr., a 24-year veteran of the CIA.

     In 1992 Mr. Rustmann founded CTC, based in West Palm Beach, Fla. The security company expects revenue of $500,000 to $600,000 this year.

     No one knows security leaks like an ex-CIA agent, says Mr. Allena. “The guys who spent their careers stealing secrets know how its done,” he says.