Last week, we discovered which private equity firm was the biggest dealmaker. Now it’s time for the largest PE deals of the year. Global PE-backed M&A totaled $267 billion so far in 2012, a 12% drop from 2011, according to preliminary data from Thomson Reuters. Private equity-backed mergers targeting the U.S. reached roughly $137 billion year-to-date, a 7% decline from 2011.

The Carlyle Group will likely more than make back its investment after Booz Allen’s $1 billion dividend.

The sale of Suddenlink is another bit of good news for the Quadrangle Group, which expects to make more than 3x its money.

Well, don’t tell the multiplying critics of private equity. But the leveraged loan market shows continuing signs of stabilization, and perhaps even vigor, according to sister magazine Buyouts, as portfolio companies are finding ways to borrow to refinance existing debt and, in some cases, pay dividends to their sponsors.

One of the more entertaining spats in private equity is apparently over.

The Quadrangle Group is getting some good news.

Today, Cequel Communications Holdings I said that it plans to refinance an existing $2.525 billion loan with a new $2.7 billion credit facility. The new loan will consist of a $500 million revolver and a $2.2 billion term loan B. Proceeds will be used to fund a $370 million distribution in March PLUS another payout of $70 million in May, according to the statement.

NEW YORK–A judge on Friday sentenced former New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi to a minimum of one year and a maximum of four years in prison for a state pension kickback scheme in which Governor Andrew Cuomo said Hevesi “presided over a culture of corruption.” Hevesi, a Democrat, pleaded guilty to a felony corruption [...]

PE firms went out of business in 2010 at the fastest rate in a decade, Financial News said, citing data from Preqin.

According to the story, there are currently some 183 private equity fund managers in runoff. The 183 funds is more than double the 90 that were in runoff in 2009. Another 150 firms are expected to disappear this year, Financial News said.

Henry “Hank” Morris, who was called the mastermind behind the pay-to-play pension fund scandal, is going to prison.

Today, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman sentenced Morris to the maximum term of 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison. Morris is the former adviser to ex-New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi. In November, he pleaded guilty to a single felony in the state’s long running corruption investigation.

The holidays are upon us and everyone is supposed to make merry. But don’t tell that to Steve Rattner and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The fight between the two has grown particularly nasty. The governor-elect is considering perjury charges against the Quadrangle co-founder, according to the New York Times. NYAG Cuomo may use Rattner’s former attorneys as witnesses against him, according to the New York Times.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, the law firm that represented Rattner against Cuomo’s office, has hired Mary Jo White, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, to guard the firm against potential action, the story said. Simpson Thacher isn’t repping Rattner anymore.