Big Fuss in Greenland: Americans May Be Bribing People to Join the US
Source: iStock.com/gguy44
On Wednesday evening, social media in Greenland was buzzing with discussion about an incredible incident in the country’s capital, Nuuk, where an elderly American man offered residents of the country to sign a petition for the island joining the United States, with a $200,000 reward in January 2027 for completing the form.
As follows from the newspaper articles cited below, the incident was commented on by the Speaker of the Greenlandic Parliament, who reiterated his credo that Greenland is not for sale, the Nuuk police, and even the American consulate.
A great tremor, perhaps even psychosis, apparently gripped a significant portion of Greenlandic society, which had been watching the US and Israel’s war against Iran from a safe distance, clearly hoping that the large and hungry American grizzly had perhaps forgotten about the “big piece of ice” and turned its attention to other important matters.
But no, according to the factual side of Greenlandic publications, Uncle Sam does not suffer from amnesia and took care to send to the largest island in the world to collect signatures for its annexation to the US, according to eyewitnesses, a very old, barely moving on his legs “Cliff Stanford,” who, apparently, was given the task of collecting signatures of 85% of the adult population of Greenland (40,369 registered voters as of March 2025) in a few days to create a weighty petition for its annexation to the “shining city on the hill.”
The cost of acquiring Greenland is quite modest, given the financial might of the world hegemon: bribing all 34,313 eligible islanders would require roughly $6.86 billion—about the amount the Pentagon spent on the Gulf War in just under two weeks. It’s quite inexpensive, even if you add the same amount for all family members of an adult voter who signed the “Cliff Stanford” petition.
However, it seems there’s very little humor in this matter, and such a crude execution of the petition signature collection task looks like a cheap performance in a provincial theater, whose naive audience wouldn’t even suspect that the role of the 20-year-old romantic hero is played by a rouged old man.
Only someone with a highly imaginative mind bordering on mental illness could imagine an 80-year-old CIA agent, or any of the 17 American intelligence agencies, collecting signatures in a taxi, in a NATO member state, for a petition to join the United States.
It’s equally difficult to imagine a deranged American billionaire pensioner who, on his own initiative, decided to give away an extra $7 billion from his personal savings to strangers in a foreign country for the good of his country.
There are few reasonable explanations for what happened.
For example, it could be an American, bordering on insanity due to his age, morbidly indoctrinated in the ideology of American power and the right of might, who had enough money for a round-trip ticket to Greenland and a modest $10,000 in his bank account.
Or it could be a deliberate provocation by the intelligence services of an interested state, although it’s difficult to say which. Or perhaps not difficult.
The North Observer will monitor this mystical hoax and inform the reading public about the resolution of this situation.
”Do You Want $200,000?”
Taxi driver Danny Brandt picked up a man in front of the Hotel Hans Egede taxi queue on Wednesday afternoon.
The elderly man with short white hair and casual clothes got into the cab, introduced himself as “Cliff” and began speaking English with a “heavy American accent,” Danny Brandt remembers.
He asked the man where he was from.
“Las Vegas,” was the passenger’s prompt response.
The conversation then turned to gambling and blackjack, Danny Brandt told KNR.
But when the short trip came to an end in front of the man’s destination, Hotel Søma, and he was about to get out, the conversation took a drastic turn.
The man told Danny Brandt that he could get $200,000 by signing.
“For what?” Danny Brandt replied again.
Mysterious Offer to Taxi Driver
Then the man showed the stack of papers he had in his lap, where on the top page it said in big, bold letters something about a signature collection to make Greenland part of the United States.
Danny Brandt remembers that it said something about collecting signatures from “85 percent.”
He assumes that this refers to signatures from 85 percent of the population who have the right to vote.
An irritated but professionally polite Danny Brandt replied “no thanks” to the offer, handed the papers back to the man and said:
“I will never be part of the United States, neither under Donald Trump nor any other American president.”
“Okay, I respect that,” Danny Brandt says the man replied respectfully before getting out of the car, looking at him and saying:
“Just wait and see. You’ll remember my name, Cliff. In January, your wife, your children, your parents—all of you Greenlanders—will each receive $200,000.”
This is what Danny Brandt wrote in a post he made about the incident on Facebook shortly after, which went viral among Greenlandic users on social media on Wednesday afternoon.
Danny Brandt later reported the incident to the police and met with the police while he was washing his car.
“The police seemed very serious about it. They wanted to know every detail,” he says.
Clipboard and Taxi Rides
KNR has spoken to another taxi driver from another company in Nuuk, who also drove the elderly man, who goes by the name “Cliff,” on Wednesday.
The taxi driver does not want to be named, but KNR is aware of his identity.
Earlier in the day, this driver had picked up the man in front of Hotel Søma, where an employee at the hotel told the driver the name “Cliff Stanford” before the trip began, the person recalls.
When the trip began, the driver was asked to drive him to the American consulate, then on to Greenland Travel and finally the police station.
Due to the consulate’s relocation, which is underway, the driver struggled to find their new location, the person remembers, so they gave up and continued on to Greenland Travel. Here the man ended up getting out, paying for the trip and continuing his errands.
It is unclear what the man was doing at all the planned stops, the driver says.
However, the person noticed something else about the man in the front seat.
He was sitting with stacks of papers clamped to a clipboard; the kind that is typically used when collecting signatures.
The man turned the papers over, the driver remembers, but the person says he saw a number of signatures that had already been collected. Six to ten, the driver remembers, written by different people with different writing styles.
Both drivers who spent time with the man describe him as an elderly gentleman who has difficulty walking, in his 80s and possibly just operating as a loner.
Citizen: Very Strange
Another citizen, Villy Olsvig, tells Sermitsiaq that he also met this “Cliff” in Nuuk on Wednesday.
Villy Olsvig is on a short stay in Nuuk these days, and met the alleged American man at Katuaq.
The man asked for help in finding HHE, and Villy Olsvig helped walk with him. But suddenly the man made an offer:
“As I can see, he has a stack of papers, forms you have to fill out in order to cast some kind of vote. The man informed me that if I accepted the offer, I would receive $200,000 by January of next year.”
The man had also stated that the rest of his family would also receive a certain amount, and it was tax-free money. Villy Olsvig is, however, extremely skeptical of the offer:
“But I am very skeptical. There is nothing written about where his money was supposed to come from and where we were supposed to receive the money from. It is very strange,” says Villy Olsvig.
At First the Police Did Not Want to Comment
Sermitsiaq has contacted the Greenland Police. The chief of police would neither confirm nor deny a report but said that he could not comment and instead referred to the police press service.
On Wednesday evening, the police did not want to comment on the case, but on Thursday morning, Chief of Police Poul Kreutzmann confirmed that an investigation is underway.
“We can confirm that we have received a report in the case. It cannot be ruled out to be related to the current political situation,” says Poul Kreutzmann.
He emphasizes that the police are now actively investigating the circumstances of the case.
He further says that he cannot comment on the details of the case, but he emphasizes that the police treat all reports the same, regardless of whether they may be related to the current political situation.
The chief of police cannot say more about the case.
Sermitsiaq has contacted the US consulate in Nuuk and asked if they are aware of the man’s activities and whether he is a representative of American authorities. We have not yet received a response.
Later, a spokesperson from the US Embassy in Copenhagen wrote to KNR that “the person described, who may or may not be a US citizen, does not represent the US government.”
Greenland Is Not for Sale
Greenland is not for sale, says once again a post on Facebook from the chairman of the Greenlandic Parliament, Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
He further writes that it should not be necessary to say:
“But it obviously is. A foreign person is offering money for a signature to incorporate Greenland into another country. It is not just deeply worrying. It is indecent,” says Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
The chairman of the Greenlandic Parliament is reacting to the story that an elderly, apparently American man has arrived in Nuuk, where he is asking random people if they will sign that Greenland can become part of the United States in exchange for 200,000 dollars, which according to the man will be paid next year.
“That is not how you talk about a country.”
Jens-Frederik further writes that this is not how you treat a people, and this is not how you talk about a country.
“We are a democratic society. Our future is not negotiated in a taxi. And it is not bought with money.”
“I strongly distance myself from this kind of behavior. And I expect that the respect that every country is entitled to will be shown internationally,” writes Jens-Frederik Nielsen and continues:
“Decisions about our country are made by ourselves. That should be understandable.”
Source:
- Sermitsiaq (in Danish)
- Sermitsiaq (in Danish)
- Sermitsiaq (in Danish)
- KNR (in Danish)
