Brother says fashion CEO spiraled after losing $100M before couple found dead

The brother of Michelle Min, the wife of fashion CEO Bryan Walker, claimed her deranged husband carried out a murder-suicide after a series of risky decisions led to him falling into financial ruin.

Paul Min, 58, exclusively told The California Post that the “extremely wealthy” couple had no problems in their marriage — before Oakland police found them dead on a turf terrace attached to their home in the hills near UC Berkeley on Friday.

But Walker, who stood to the side as his wife controlled their mutual business and women’s fashion company Bryn Walker, had suffered extensive mental anguish in the months before the couple’s death.

Paul said Walker went behind the family’s back to take out loans against their properties, gambled on risky options and leveraged positions, and fell into immense debt for no clear reason. He had not worked for some time, but the couple agreed he could “play” around with some of their wealth.

But he went well out of control.

By the time the dust cleared in mid-September, Walker believed he had lost “well over $100 million,” Paul said.

The loss sent him into a spiral about the possibilities of where their family could be headed. Walker went into a state of mental incapacitation, and “we feared he was suicidal,” Paul recounted.

“He just curled up into a ball, and he was just sobbing like a baby for weeks on end. He was just completely useless,” Paul said.

Her family told The Post, she was determined to salvage the situation.

“Imagine that happening to you? You would collapse. Your spouse lied to you and lost over $100 million and you might be out on the streets,” he said. “You might go from being one of the wealthiest people in the country to being homeless because your husband lied to you and wagered everything on crazy bets.”

She cared for her husband closely, Paul said, trying to make him better. Michelle fed, coddled, and embraced Walker to bring him away from his mental edge.

She hired a “hotshot” accountant in Chicago who told them their situation wasn’t as bad as they believed, Paul said, but it was too late. Walker “had basically gone insane,” her family said.

Min’s family made plans to institutionalize him after trying, futilely, to recover his mental state. But on the morning he was set to be institutionalized, Friday, a friend from down the street received a text.

“Call 911,” Walker texted the friend, Paul said.

Fearing something was wrong, he bolted to the residence. But the alleged fatal shots rang out before he could get there. Walker had already allegedly shot himself and his wife, Paul said.

Min’s family had taken the proactive step of hiding the firearms the family owned, but it appeared Paul somehow retrieved one, Michelle’s brother said. Walker hid the gun in a downstairs bedroom and loaded it there as his wife went to the turf patio to let out their small dog, Pip.

He then walked upstairs and shot her, Paul believed.

Haunting surveillance video reviewed by CBS, too horrifying for them to play on air, unveiled the mysterious circumstances of the shooting. The first gunshot can be heard on video around 10:43 a.m. Friday, and then a man is heard crying and screaming in a “very dramatic” scene.

Then a second gunshot rang out a short time later, “and it was dead quiet,” CBS reported.

Police found a sort of suicide note on the scene that included the passcodes to Walker’s and Michelle’s phones, Paul said. The note suggested Walker had premeditated the plan and left the codes so the family could arrange their affairs.

Paul believes Walker shot his wife because he learned he was going to be institutionalized, and he previously resisted most mental help efforts.

Walker and Michelle’s marriage lasted more than 30 years before the fashion CEO allegedly killed his wife, and then himself, Paul said.

Michelle’s family is still enduring the “complete mess” left by the horrific alleged crime. She leaves behind her brother, Paul, and sister Alexandra, 60.

Paul said he’s going to run their fashion company, and the family is trying to reorganize Walker’s financial mess.

“My sister was utterly devoted to Brian to the very end, and he shot her,” Paul said. “She didn’t say anything harsh to him. She just said, ‘Brian, you’ve been sick. It’s my fault, I should have known better. I should have known you were in a crisis.’”

“She blamed herself. That’s the kind of person she was.”

No one knows, including Paul, exactly why Walker allegedly decided to shoot his wife and then himself.

“I think he was just too weak to go by himself,” Paul said. “I used to think of him as a strong person, but I’d never seen him tested. When he lost his money, I kept trying to tell him, like, ‘It’s just money.’”

“Why take our beautiful sister?” he asked. “Why not just kill yourself?”

The Oakland Police Department is leading the investigation into the shooting and has not ruled out a murder-suicide.

Police recovered one firearm at the couple’s home.

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