Mikael Blomkvist: “The job I was offered, and which inexplicably I agreed to do, is without a doubt the most bizarre assignment I’ve ever undertaken.”

In the international runaway bestseller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist, and Lisbeth Salander, an investigator with a dragon tattoo, a wasp tattoo, as well as others (but not, as far as we know, an SEC or FINRA tattoo) were given the bizarre job of trying to find out who murdered someone 40 years earlier. For some people, the position of a chief compliance officer (CCO) for a brokerdealer or investment adviser may seem bizarre because CCOs often have the job of giving advice and telling people what to do, how to do it, or what not to do, but they don’t have the power to enforce their decisions or carry out their message. Because of the key function played by CCOs, their conduct is often carefully scrutinized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), resulting in “marks” or “tattoos” such as fines or suspensions.