Five for Friday

1. Creeps 2. Process 3. RECESS 4. Kyle Lowry's brother 5. Downtown Girls

BY HENRY ABBOTT

Private equity’s reputation has taken a beating (and not just from TrueHoop’s ongoing series about Apollo Global). Layoffs and union-busting have always been part of the story. But over time so many other associations arise: the burning of the Amazon rain forest, training the operatives who killed Jamal Khashoggi, even the shocking bills that result from visiting an emergency room. The argument might be that’s the cost of making winning investments, but the companies they buy keep going out of business in ways that hurt everyone except the private equity investors.

Post-Jeffrey Epstein there’s a cavalcade of creepy personal stuff too. Ares Management, run by the billionaire behind the Atlanta Hawks, just reportedly let go its key finance executive because, according to SEC filings, he “engaged in inappropriate personal relationships and interactions with certain employees.” A recent Financial Times headline about one of the industry’s titans: “Leon Black rejects claims h…