Well, in case you didn't realize or somehow forgot who private equity firms work for, an industry lobbying group is here say they work for you: "The vast majority of the firms' returns go directly to the firms' investors," says the narrator of an animated web video published today by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. "So when private equity succeeds, public school teachers in Michigan, police and firefighters in Colorado, nurses in Ohio and college students in North Carolina reap the benefits."

Of course, a good chunk of the criticisms that private equity managers face applies not to how much they make, but how they pay taxes. To which end, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is said to be investigating some buyout firms' practice of converting management fees into investment income in order to help managers delay or avoid paying taxes. (Law professor Victor Fleischer took an in-depth look at so-called fee waiver programs last week in The Times.)

Well, it turns out that a whistleblower complaint is at the heart of the attorney general's investigation, according to The Wall Street Journal, and:

At least two other whistleblower claims related to management-fee conversions have been filed with the Internal Revenue Service, which has the authority to pay whistleblowers up to 30% of proceeds collected in large cases.

Which, on the heels of former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld's announcement yesterday that he stands to collect $104 million for dropping a time on his former employers efforts to help U.S. citizens evade taxes, suggests there's another group that the work of private equity firms may soon benefit.

Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker who provided the Internal Revenue Service with evidence that the Swiss bank was helping U.S. citizens evade taxes, will receive $104 million in a whistleblower award. Mr. Birkenfeld, who said he once concealed diamonds in a toothpaste tube on behalf of a client, was released from prison on Aug. 1 after serving part of a 40-month sentence after confessing that he had forgotten to blow the whistle on himself.

Deutsche Bank is lagging behind its European peers when it comes to meeting new regulatory capital requirements, according to Bloomberg. The bank may cut jobs and reduce pay ratios under a restructuring plan announced this week.

A German court paved the way for the European Central Bank to begin a new program to buy sovereign debt, dismissing a lawsuit that sought to delay the plan.

Two-thirds of economists polled by Bloomberg think that the Federal Reserve will announce a new round of bond purchases tomorrow.

More details in the plea agreement signed by Peregrine Financial Group founder Russell Wasendorf Sr., who faces up to 50 years in prison under a deal with prosecutors.

Zuck spoke; Facebook shares rose.

Plaintiffs say that private equity firms including KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Bain Capital colluded to tamp down prices on buyout deals, according to a complaint filed in Massachusetts Federal District Court. The New York Times went to court to get the documents, which Bain lawyers worried would get washed into the election news cycle.

No one in France believes Bernard Arnault, the Louis Vuitton chief and the country's richest man, when he says he'll keep paying taxes in France once he's received Belgian nationality, according to The Financial Times. French president François Hollande has promised to tax income above 1 million euros at 75 percent.