What public records can confirm whether William Kyle Riley held pilot or private investigator licenses in Georgia?
Executive summary
Public records that can confirm whether someone held a Georgia private investigator registration are held and searchable by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Private Detective and Security Agencies board—specifically the License Verification / Person Search tools the state publishes [1][2][3]. Reporting circulating online asserts that a William Kyle Riley is both a Georgia-based helicopter pilot and was listed as a former Georgia private investigator, but the name is common and the available reporting documents multiple distinct William/Bill Rileys, meaning identity-matching is essential before relying on any single public record [4][5][6].
1. What official Georgia public records can directly confirm a PI registration
The authoritative public record for private detective registration in Georgia is the Secretary of State’s licensing system: the Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies publishes a License Verification page and a Person Search portal that allow the public to verify registered individuals and company licenses [1][2][3]. The Board’s FAQs and forms explain that registered individuals may be verified through that License Verification page and that the state regulates PI registration, so a search there is the starting point to confirm whether a named individual was ever registered with the Georgia board [3][7].
2. How Georgia’s licensing framework affects what records exist
Georgia issues licenses to companies and registers individuals under employer agency licenses; it does not issue a standalone “private investigator” business license to an individual in the way some states do, meaning public records will show whether an individual was registered under a licensed company and the company’s license status—information retrievable via the Secretary of State’s tools [8][9]. Practical guidance and vendor write‑ups corroborate that verification is done via the state’s license lookup portals and note bond and application requirements that accompany agency/company records [9][10].
3. Confounding factor: multiple men named William or Bill Riley
Independent online reporting repeatedly warns that there are at least two different Bill/William Rileys who have been discussed in connection with Epstein-related material—one William H. Riley based in Florida and a separate William Kyle Riley described as a Georgia pilot and adoptive father of William Sascha Riley—so searches for “William Riley” will return many hits and risk false matches without corroborating identifiers such as middle name, birthdate, or address [5][6][11]. Commercial people‑search databases likewise show hundreds of William Rileys statewide, illustrating the need to match unique identifiers before concluding records belong to a particular William Kyle Riley [11][12][13].
4. What the reporting shows versus what remains to be checked
Social reporting and longform commentary circulating online claim that William Kyle Riley is a 76‑year‑old Georgia helicopter pilot and that he appeared on Georgia’s official website as a former licensed private investigator; these claims point investigators toward the Georgia Secretary of State license lookup as the place to confirm registration details [4][5][14]. However, the materials provided here do not include the actual Secretary of State search results, nor do they include a scanned PI registration or the FAA/aviation records that would independently verify pilot credentials, so those searches remain necessary to confirm either status [5][14].
5. Practical next steps to confirm both claims in public records
First, use the Georgia Secretary of State License Verification / Person Search portal to look up “William Kyle Riley” and any variant names or birth details to see any PI registration entries and associated agency/company licenses and bond/expiration information [2][1]. Second, because the name is common, corroborate any match against independent identifiers (middle name, town, DOB) found in public people‑search or court filings to avoid conflating different William Rileys [11][15]. Third, to verify pilot credentials one would normally consult aviation certification records such as the FAA airmen registry and any state aircraft operator records, but the documents provided in this set do not include those searches or FAA data, so those searches must be run separately (the provided reporting only asserts pilot status without producing FAA records) [4][14]. Finally, litigation and deposition files cited in some reporting may name a William Riley in context; those court records and email exhibits are additional public documents worth pulling to corroborate how a named Riley appears in official filings [14].