According to a public filing, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman made $253 million last year. The Wall Street Journal reports that other compensation pushed that figure to “more than $1.27 billion, topping his 2021 take home and amounting to one of Wall Street’s richest-ever single-year payouts on record.”

The filing shows that Schwarzman’s base salary is modest at $350,000, a figure that is the same as for Jonathan Gray, the COO, Michael Chea, the CFO, and John Finley, the Chief Legal Officer. Gray’s total was $296 million. Tucked inside the numbers were the prices of cars and drivers and use of aircraft.

The pay opens the issue of whether Schwarzman deserves what he was paid. It depends on perspective. Over the last two years, the stock has been up 29% compared to the S&P at an increase of 4%. The stock is down 26% in the last year compared to the S&P’s drop of 4%. Blackstone has a market cap of $108 billion.

Schwarzman co-founded Blackstone in 1985 with a mere $400,000. It has successfully moved into a handful of financial businesses, which include hedge funds, alternative investments, and private equity. Based on Blackstone’s success, it is impossible to argue against the fact that it is among the most successful financial firms in the world.

Schwarzman’s run at Blackstone has made him fabulously rich. According to Forbes, his net worth is $24 billion.

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One of the questions about fabulously rich people is whether they deserve all the money. In Schwarzman’s case, he has not minted money for his shareholders recently, while at the same time, he has minted money for himself.

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