Melanie Walker

Melanie Walker is among the small group of close Epstein associates who, like Boris Nikolic, haven't been tainted by him and continue in the financial and philanthropic upper crust. Her current official thumbnail reads:

MD clinically specialized in Endovascular Neurosurgery and Vascular Neurology, with post-doctoral studies in computational neuroscience. Formerly: Neurotechnology and brain science adviser to William H Gates III at bgC3; Director, World Bank Group; Deputy Director for Global Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Adviser for Macroeconomics and Health, World Health Organization; practitioner in the developing world. Currently: Rockefeller Fellow and Clinical Associate Professor, University of Washington School of Medicine. Author of numerous peer reviewed publications. Member, Executive Board, American Medical Association Foundation. Young Global Leader and co-chair for the Global Future Council on Neurotechnology and Brain Science, World Economic Forum.

There's no mentioni of Epstein. Nevertheless, she turns up at several times in the Epstein story, according to numerous sources. The UK Daily Mail says,

Dr Walker is said to have met Epstein in 1992, six months after graduating from the University of Texas. He told her he could get her an audition to model for the lingerie firm Victoria's Secret.

The company was owned by fashion magnate Les Wexner, for whom Epstein acted as financial adviser. Dr Walker moved into one of Epstein's New York apartments. In 1999, she began to appear as a passenger on his pilot's flight logs.

It's worth pointing out that in 1992, Epstein was in fact beginning his relationship with Wexner, but he was also deeply involved in the Towers Financial Ponzi scheme, which turned out to be the biggest in history until Bernie Madoff. Epstein worked behind the scenes at Towers Financial beginning in 1987 and is credited with being the brains behind the fraud. According to the Wikipedia link above,

In February 1993, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged that the company, while fraudulently reporting a profit of $13 million ($25,000,000 in current dollar terms) for the four years ended June 30, 1991, actually lost $137 million ($260,000,000 in current dollar terms). In March 1993, Towers Financial filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Nevertheless, although Epstein was apparently a co-conspirator with the other organizers, who went to prison for various terms, Epstein escaped any penalty. What did Dr Walker, whom I suspect was no ingenue, know? In any case, she appears to have continued her association with Epstein through her time in medical school. Again from the UK Daily Mail link,

That same year [1999], having graduated from medical school, she took up a new role as Epstein's science adviser.

She would later join the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and became an intermediary between Epstein and the Microsoft co-founder.

But at the turn of the century Dr Walker, then 28 years old, seems to have been an important pivot in the tycoon's burgeoning relationship with the Duke [Prince Andrew].

In June 2000, the neurosurgeon attended — according to the guest list — the 'Dance of the Decades' party thrown at Windsor Castle by the Queen to mark a number of royal birthday milestones, including the Duke's 40th and Princess Anne's 50th.

I have several questions. What need did Epstein, a cheesy pimp, con man, embezzler, and blackmailer, have for a "science adviser"? One would think that a qualified science type, hired off the street, would discover fairly quickly that the job was without meaningful duties and move on as quietly and tactfully as could be done. Yet Walker not only stayed with it, but she got on board the Lolita Express. Why on earth would an MD. who of anyone must be familiar with the whole range of sexual infections, step into an environment like that in anything but a hazmat suit? Some science adviser.

But it gets stranger. According to the UK Sun,

[Prince] Andrew first met Texas-born Melanie in New York in 1999 — the same year he met Epstein. The brain and nervous system specialist praised the Duke in a 2003 interview.

Melanie, who lives with ex Microsoft exec Steven Sinofsky, insisted they were just friends who chatted “mostly about science and medicine” and kept in touch via email.

She added: “He calls me Mel and addresses me ‘Hey Dork’ or ‘smarty pants’.” Melanie declined to comment to The Sun.

In November 2000, accordinmg to the UK Daily Mail, Walker spent several days in a guest house with Prince Andrew at Epstein's Zorro Ranch in New Mexico.

The Duke was accompanied by the same senior Personal Protection Officer (PPO) who was to stay with him at Epstein's mansion in New York the following Easter.

The police inspector — the Duke's bodyguard for 15 years — kept a private Filofax diary in which he recorded his daily duties and observations. He still has that Filofax, sources say.

Using this resource, the PPO recalls that the Duke stayed in one of the guest lodges at Zorro, while he was quartered in a building near the ranch entrance.

'He knew who went in and who went out,' says a source. 'And for most of the time the only person who was there with the Duke, apart from the ranch's domestic staff, was his then girlfriend, Melanie Walker.'

Walker's relationship with Epstein and her membership in his inner circle continued past his 2008 arrest. According to the Seattle Times,

Two members of Gates’ inner circle — Boris Nikolic and Melanie Walker — were close to Epstein and at times functioned as intermediaries between the two men.

. . . Walker later met Steven Sinofsky, a senior executive at Microsoft who became president of its Windows division, and moved to Seattle to be with him. In 2006, she joined the Gates Foundation with the title of senior program officer.

At the foundation, Walker met and befriended Nikolic, a native of what is now Croatia and a former fellow at Harvard Medical School who was the foundation’s science adviser. Nikolic and Gates frequently traveled and socialized together.

Walker, who had remained in close touch with Epstein, introduced him to Nikolic, and the men became friendly.

It's hard to avoid thinking that Walker was, like Ghislaine Maxwell and Eva Andersson Dubin, one of a stable of senior women who continued as part of Epstein's inner circle and did various favors for him over many years.

My main takeaway here is that I would not allow Dr Walker to get anywhere near me with a scalpel. Come to think of it, maybe not without a hazmat suit, either.