PEOPLE - Cafe Carlyle

David Rubenstein, the Carlyle Group’s co-founder, grouses about conspiracy theorists’ hypotheses about the connections brought to the buyout firm by former senior government officials he has employed — from former U.S. president George H.W. Bush to former U.K. prime minister John Major.

David Rubenstein, the Carlyle Group’s co-founder, grouses about conspiracy theorists’ hypotheses about the connections brought to the buyout firm by former senior government officials he has employed — from former U.S. president George H.W. Bush to former U.K. prime minister John Major. But he does keep feeding the fantasists. His latest high-profile catch is Oliver Sarkozy, the debonair half-brother of France’s president. But unlike other hires, Sarkozy, 38, is a well-regarded banker in his own right. He was joint global head of UBS’s financial institutions group and advised ABN Amro on its sale to a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland. The New York–based Sarkozy won’t detail his role, though sources say he will help start and manage a financial institutions investment fund. Says he: “I would expect the role of private equity to become very important over the next five years as the financial industry works through its current issues and restructures.”

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