After 24 years of serving in Asia, Europe and Africa as a CIA officer, Frederick Rustmann Jr. is parlaying his skills and those of ex-colleagues to offer U.S. companies what he hopes is a valuable commodity in the rapidly changing global economy: business intelligence.

     Rustmann, 54, retired from the CIA in November 1990, leaving The Company to start a company of his own. He launched CTC International Group in West Palm Beach about a year ago.

     Rustmann says he decided to start his own venture for two reasons. First, after settling into his Trump Towers residence, he was contracted by former associates who wanted him to gather information about foreign ventures. Second, a policy change steered the CIA away from gathering intelligence of interest to U.S. companies.

     “I thought the agency should be more responsive to American business, and since they weren’t, I felt former intelligence officers should,” Rustmann said.

     To start CTC International - named for the Rustmann’s old CIA division, the Counterterrorist Center - he recruited his protégé, Brad Robinson, 39, who was a CIA station chief in Western Europe. According to Rustmann, Robinson also left the agency in 1992 because of philosophical changes after the demise of the Soviet Union. Robinson was working for a client in Montreal and unavailable for comment.

     A year after its start-up, CTC employs two other ex-CIA officers, both of whom were stationed in Latin America. They are Don Winters, 57, who retired last month after 33 years, and Walter Berwick, 52, who retired about a year ago.

     Rustmann says CTC also can call on nine free-lancers-former CIA officers who live in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Frankfurt, Addis Ababa, Cyprus and Mexico City. They are paid on a contract-plus-expenses basis, he says. The former officers working in West Palm Beach are paid a performance-based commission, except for Robinson, who is paid the larger of a $2,500 retainer of the commission.

     Rustmann says CTC got its start with the help of two Palm Beach investors, who advanced him $100,000 to help buy office equipment and secure a lease for an office on Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach.

     One investor, Robert Sanders, was formerly with the Goodman Co., which built the Phillips Point office complex in West Palm Beach. Sanders, an attorney and accountant, said he invested because there was a need for this type of business.

     “In order for businesses to survive in the global economy, they need to operate with a competitive edge and without surprises,” Sanders said. “We don’t see the U.S. government sponsoring business intelligence, so there is a great need. CTC gets the needed info legally and discreetly.”

     Sanders also handles administrative duties along with Rustmann’s wife, Teri. Rustmann would not identify the other investor, except to say he is a friend of Sanders.

     CTC’s client services include: assessing foreign locations in terms of political, financial and safety concerns; arranging introductions of business, political or military leaders; investigating foreign companies or individuals with whom U.S. clients may be seeking joint ventures; ferreting out sources of internal leaks within companies; and tracking down foreign counterfeiters of patented U.S. products.

     CTC compiles its information from data bases, informants and other contacts that the ex-spies developed through the years. These can include foreign government and banking officials, as well as street-wise informants, Rustmann says.

     Berwick says the company advises clients on local customs, some of which can be touchy or awkward. “That means in some countries, you don’t go to the police,” he said.

     CTC’s fees can range from $2,000 to $200,000, depending on the risk and time spent on the project. Rustmann says the firm has generated about $250,000 in revenues in the past six months, and he hopes to pay back his investors soon, with a 12 percent return on their money.

     Jim Beckley, who works as a trade-development official in Kansas, says CTC’s expertise was essential in landing a plant site for a Japanese company that has an annual $35 million U.S. market.

     “They can provide info that is hard to get, and we needed good solid intelligence,” said Beckley, a longtime friend of Rustmann’s.

     In four months, Beckley says, CTC provided an in-depth report on the Japanese company’s decision-makers that included their professional and educational backgrounds as well as their views on U.S. workers. CTC also provided an analysis of the type of plant sites and communities they preferred, he said.

     Another client, David Burton of Dallas-based Maxus Energy, says his natural gas and oil exploration company needed research on potential oil reserves in Northeast Africa. For $10,000 plus expenses, Burton hired Rustmann as a translator-guide who introduced him to key State Department officials and local African leaders.

     “It is hard to get someone to trust you in foreign countries,” said Burton, a former FBI agent. “If you don’t know the things to and not to do, you can get in trouble right quick.” He said CTC’s services saved him weeks of work.