Those who blame Stephen Schwarzman’s lavish 60th birthday party for putting the spotlight on the private-equity industry might have another bone to pick with The Blackstone Group’s chief.
Schwarzman and his wife Christine were whooping it up with President George Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Diana Ross, Steve Martin and Martin Scorcese in the balcony at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Schwarzman, his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Andrew Curtis Right also joined an exclusive group of dignitaries and celebrities for a reception at The White House for the honorees.
Other Wall Streeters on the list included Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein and Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein.
Schwarzman, who has been the chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington since 2004, recently pledged $10 million to the center.
Earlier this year, others criticized The Blackstone chief in the industry, most notably by rival buyout king Henry Kravis, for his high public profile.
The critics blamed Schwarzman’s $3 million birthday party in February for causing a backlash against wealthy private-equity firms, which buy giant companies in the hopes of selling them for a profit in the future. Soon after the party, lawmakers in Washington introduced legislation to double income taxes on partners at private-equity firms and protestors lined the street outside Kravis’ New York apartment.
But a successful lobbying campaign by the private-equity industry helped persuade Congress to drop its pursuit of the tax hikes. Maybe Schwarzman’s connections in Washington aren’t such a bad thing after all.