About

Seth Derish, a San Francisco native, attended high school in San Bruno, California (Capuchino, g. 1972) and was editor of his high school newspaper.  He received a scholarship and attended California State University, Chico whereupon he wrote a special major in Investigative News Reporting (g. 1978) and became news editor of the campus newspaper.    He won the first national award from Rolling Stone magazine for investigative news reporting for a series of articles documenting police mismanagement in his college town.  He went on to expose an Iranian murder conspiracy on the college campus.  Derish was also the Director of Campus Communications and oversaw the newspaper, radio and television stations.  He spent his first summer off from school living in a Mexican beach town, cleaning fish for the locals to support himself.    He took off one year while at the university and traveled around the Middle East on a fact finding mission, visiting Israel, Jordan, Turkey and Syria.

                  Mr. Derish moved to San Francisco in 1978 and after working with several local attorneys, he opened up his investigation agency, having been the youngest licensed private investigator in the state’s history.   He has assisted law firms, both locally and nationally in all types of cases,  including labor, environmental, personal injury, and financial fraud.   More recently he has been conducting detailed due diligence investigations for both individuals and businesses both in the U.S. and abroad.   His courtroom declarations are generally accepted without any problems.  He is also adept at locating missing persons worldwide, whether it be nefarious (child abduction)  or verifying relatives in probate cases.   .

                  In 1995, Mr. Derish opened up an office in San Jose, Costa Rica and lived there for eight years before returning to the United States.  His Costa Rica office is managed by an attorney while he has a bevy of f around the country.  Mr. Derish travels to Costa Rica and other Latin American countries at least four times a years to oversee his office and conduct investigations.   The firm has handled all types of investigations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras and southern Mexico and processes up to ten cases per month.    Mr. Derish represents several international investigation groups covering all of  Central America in addition to his duties as advisor and special projects director to his Oregon based agency.   He is the co-director for Central and South America for the Council of International Investigators and a lifetime member of the World Association of Detectives.

                  In 2011, Mr. Derish was hired by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission as an outside investigator.  This bi-partisan commission was tasked by Congress to find the root causes of the Great Recession.  Its published report became a New York Times Bestseller.

                 He and his wife formed the non-profit Costa Rica School Project, Inc. and raised funds in the United States (with many of his clients and professional colleagues contributing) to build a school and community center in a village in Nicoya.    The non-profit now sponsors a youth basketball league and repairs farmworkers houses amongst other endeavors.

                  Mr. Derish is both fluent in Spanish and English.

                  California State License 189048

                  Costa Rica Cedula Juridica: 3-101-239587

                  Members of:

                                    World Association of Detectives

                                    Council of International Investigators

                                    California Association of Licensed Investigators

Costa Rica