Money Hasn't Bought Stephen Schwarzman Friends — But He Doesn't Care

Last year, Stephen Schwarzman’s birthday party included camels and a live performance by Gwen Stefani. But despite his wealth, Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of the private equity group Blackstone worth $12.3 billion according to Forbes, has not found that fortune brings with it friends. And he is comfortable with that, writes The New York Times.

There are a several reasons why Schwarzman rubs people the wrong way, according to The Times. Schwarzman is an adviser to President Trump and once hyperbolically compared Obama-era tax increases on corporations to Hitler invading Poland, neither which go over well in his hometown of New York City. He has also been known to create or extend rivalries, once famously saying, “I want war—not a series of skirmishes.” And his charitable contributions have also raised controversy because they sometimes come with conditions attached.

But his philanthropy is still notable. Schwarzman and his wife, Christine, just helped underwrite the exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” at the Metropolitan Museum. So, even though the the investment guru is not universally loved, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get the last laugh—or a multi-million-dollar tax write-off.