NEW YORK - Blackstone Group's chief executive Stephen Schwarzman was paid a salary of $350,000 for 2009, but did not take a bonus for the year, according to a regulatory filing.

His total compensation for the year actually shows up as a negative number of $409,217, which takes into account compensation expense due to the accrual of carried interest.

Carried interest is typically the 20 percent that private equity executives take from the profit made on their funds, after compensating their investors. The amounts can be huge if the funds perform well. Still, it is only payable after a fund generates a performance hurdle, usually 8 percent.

Blackstone explained in a footnote in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that compensation expense may be negative, if there are negative adjustments in the value of certain portfolio investments.

The amounts do not reflect actual cash distributions, according to the filing, meaning Schwarzman would not have had to pay any money back.

According to the filing, under accounting rules the amount assumes that unrealized investments in the funds were realized.

Blackstone said on Thursday that it had marked up its private equity portfolio 12 percent for the year, but it marked down its estate portfolio down 35 percent for the year.

Schwarzman owns 233 million Blackstone shares according to the filing, worth $3.2 billion at current prices. Blackstone's stock closed up 6 cents at $13.98. (Reporting by Megan Davies)

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