When the Berlin Wall crumbled and the Soviet Union dissolved, there were a lot of stories making the rounds about out-of-work spies.

Where would undercover agents go to find work when the nation no longer needed organizations like the CIA?

One answer appears to be Las Vegas. A company with worldwide contacts in business, government and politics has opened here to gather and interpret information for businesses planning to compete in the global marketplace.

Global Intelligence Network is an information-gathering company led by a group that says it has past and present associations with the Central Intelligence Agency.

The company's mission: to give companies the information they need to make intelligent decisions before they invest millions of dollars in an operation abroad. That includes due diligence investigations, competitor analysis, checking out new business partners, customers and vendors and verifying financial, technical and political capabilities.

"Every case is different," said Peter Maheu, one of the five principals of the enterprise. "In some cases, we can find out what we need to know with a few phone calls and a little research. Other jobs can take longer and take contact with several people."

Maheu, former president of Trademark Protection Services, has done intelligence and investigative work in the United States and abroad and has written and lectured on business fraud. Among his clients from previous business associations have been the Hard Rock Cafe, 20th Century Fox, Mirage Studios and the Walt Disney Co.

Other principals of Global Intelligence, each of whom have worked directly or indirectly with CIA contacts:

* Robert Maheu, Peter's father, who for years was the primary consultant to Howard Hughes and his various Nevada enterprises. His clients have included the United Steelworkers of America, Greyhound Exposition Services, Sunbelt Communications Inc., Starvos Niarchos, Beijing Guoan Advertising Corp. and the CIA.

* Lawrence Casey, nephew of William Casey, the late director of the CIA, a former senior official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. Based in Palm Beach, Fla., Casey also has served in executive staff positions to several members of Congress.

* Thomas Lorentzen, a former top executive within the U.S. Small Business Administration in two presidential administrations. With a background in economics, business and politics, Lorentzen has worked with the American Gaming Association, International Game Technology and the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association. The owner of McKinley Group, a public relations and political consultant group, Lorentzen assisted in political campaigns at all government levels, working to elect President Reagan and Sen. Paul Laxalt and on the gubernatorial campaign of Cheryl Lau.

* Sam Nixon, an expert in regulatory compliance, fraud investigation and criminal intelligence. A member of the Economic Crime Investigators Association, the North American Gaming Regulators Association and the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators, Nixon worked previously with the Arizona Department of Gaming as a division manager specializing in corporate investigations.

While the principal operators of the company know their way around American intelligence circles, their contacts in the outside world are astonishing. Global Intelligence says it has a working rapport with the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency and the Office of Naval Intelligence. The company also is affiliated with the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Israel's Mossad and the former Soviet Union's KGB.

The associates pride themselves in having inside knowledge on government, politics and business affairs all over the world. They have contacts worldwide and while regimes rise and fall wherever there's turmoil, operatives usually stay in circulation in their respective countries because they stay neutral in their political affiliations.

So why would a company need such high-powered intelligence?

"We're able to give our clients the best possible information," said Casey. "We can save companies millions of dollars on the front end."

In the global economy, many businesses are seeking opportunities beyond U.S. borders. With doors opening in Eastern Europe and China and the lifting of sanctions in South Africa, business people have become aware of vast markets for everything from potato chips to computer chips.

But wandering into a foreign country to set up shop isn't for the inexperienced. Lorentzen recalled an experience with a company that was attempting to secure a gas pipeline project in the Middle East.

"There were a series of meetings between representatives of the company and a man who said he was a representative for the sultan of Brunei," said Lorentzen. "Meetings were conducted in a nice residence in Southern California and everything seemed on the up and up."

But the company sought some background on the representative to make sure he was able to make a deal he said he could. Lorentzen said company officials were told to ask to see the representative's letter of authority from the sultan, a common documentation from the ruling family of that country.

"When he (the representative) was asked for that, he apparently got very nervous and the company backed off on the deal," Lorentzen said. "He didn't have the authority to make the deal on behalf of the family. That was a case where the process ended before it even got started, but it saved the company a lot of money."

Peter Cunningham, the state's international trade director, said that since 23 percent of the nation's gross national product is attributed to international commerce, the more companies there are compiling accurate information, the better.

"The majority of companies in our state engaged in international business have been doing it at various levels of expertise," Cunningham said. "When you're dealing with a country with some perceived instability, like Russia, for example, these types of export management companies can be very valuable."

Cunningham said the state had its own brush with a company seeking to conduct business, but the representative's claims "sounded too good to be true."

"We did some checking and we found that, indeed, this person was not the most legitimate person we could be dealing with" and the process came to a halt, he said.

The reports Global Intelligence will deliver to clients will be comprehensive, the younger Maheu said. In addition to gathering facts and figures from the databases like Lexus and Nexus, the company will gather reports from operatives within the country under consideration.

While the company's focus is on the more complex international operations, it's capable of handling domestic inquiries.

The company has affiliate offices in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Phoenix, Palm Beach, Fla., and Shanghai, China.

Florida-based intelligence analysts interpret the information and prepare a briefing similar to those the CIA generates for the president and other high-ranking government officials.

"We put together a coherent package," Maheu said, "that will tell you what's in the wind."

"Global is an interpreter as opposed to a translator," said Casey. "An interpreter not only tell you what is said, but also tells you what it means. Several intelligence companies provide a mountain of information in reports; we can provide valuable assessments for successful business decisions."

In addition to checking references and gathering information, the company leaders say they have the resources to collect debt from people overseas, track hidden assets in foreign countries and develop contacts that can serve as reliable escorts to people traveling abroad.

Although the company leaders discount the cloak-and-dagger nature of their work, they still abide by principles commonly associated with the world of secret agents -- the necessity of confidentiality, discretion and trust.

As a result, they don't hand out lists of satisfied customers and they don't discuss their fees. There's no rate card and every contract is negotiated individually.

They aren't glorified private investigators and they say they won't take every client that comes through their door.

So why establish headquarters in Southern Nevada?

The elder Maheu has been sold on the area since he began working with Hughes here through the 1960s. And, like many other businesses that set up shop in the area, Global Intelligence enjoys the tax advantages the state has to offer.

"We really could set up anywhere," said Peter Maheu. "With telecommunications the way it is, we just need to be able to make contact with the outside world."

The company's modest office on Eastern Avenue, just south of Tropicana Avenue, doesn't have any specialized telephones or supercomputers on site. Most of the communicating they do is over standard phone lines and the Internet sleuthing they do is possible for any user. They talk, they fax, they e-mail -- no secret codes or encrypted messages are necessary.

Principals maintain offices and a small conference room in the headquarters decorated with renderings of the seals of the agencies with which the company associates. The conference room has a sign forbidding the taking of pictures, a souvenir from the Berlin Wall; and other walls have signed pictures from national heroes, mostly astronauts commemorating historic space missions.

Another reason the principals like Las Vegas is that, like other business people, they enjoy the access to top-notch entertainment and accommodations to wine and dine clients. World-class McCarran International Airport allows them to shuttle in and out quickly to virtually any destination, Maheu added.

But another key to locating in Las Vegas is its proximity to the heavy hitters of the gaming industry. With the amount of international diversity occurring in that industry, Global Intelligence officials see an opportunity to use their expertise on behalf of companies planning to build casinos in Australia, Southeast Asia and South Africa.

Gaming analyst Dave Ehlers of Las Vegas Investment Advisors said there's also a need for casinos to check out players who purport to be high rollers.

"In this country, there are ways to get bank records to get the full story on a player," Ehlers said. "It's not as easy to check out players from other countries. This company seems to have the right cast of characters to do that kind of investigating. If they can't figure it out, who could?"

Ehlers said most casinos "go it by happenstance" when making decisions on how to compensate top players. Casino companies are going to great lengths to take the guesswork out of establishing a comp level that best rewards the top players. Some are investing in high-tech tracking systems, but background information on players can be even more helpful in establishing credit limits and comp packages.

"Anytime you can learn more about a marketplace or about business partners in an investment opportunity, any of that kind of intelligence is helpful," said Bob Shriver, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development. "It's just a matter of whether the cost associated with gathering the intelligence is worthwhile."

Shriver said most business people are honorable people -- but it never hurts to have additional information on prospective partners, clients and intermediaries.

"The old saying is that your word is your bond, and that still applies in Asia and in Latin America," Shriver said. "But the more you know about the people, the better off your business will be."