The Carlyle Group's ruling triumvirate, David Rubenstein, Bill Conway and Danny D'Aniello, made big money in 2017 (Bloomberg). The DBDs took home $193 million in 2017.
Bloomberg reported:
The founders of Carlyle and Apollo Global Management LLC, unlike peers at Blackstone Group LP and KKR & Co., don’t receive carried interest, or a cut of deal profits.Actually, founders don't pay carried interest on their PEU investments. Carlyle's SEC filing stated their co-investments weren't "subject to management fees, incentive fees or carried interest." That means The Carlyle Group took a much smaller chunk from founder co-investments than it took from limited partners. The DBDs got to invest without fees, which were born by other investors.
The filing did not report the DBD's return/profits from co-investments. Those could easily dwarf the $193 million reported.