Three weeks ago, police officers in Nuuk, Greenland\u2019s capital, went on high alert after an older American man, dressed in a sharp black suit, was spotted on the streets trying to get Greenlanders to sign on to a peculiar petition.<\/p>\n
He told people his name was Cliff<\/a>. He said he was working for himself. And he made an intriguing offer: If you agree to join the United States, he proposed, you could each get $200,000.<\/p>\n Who was he?<\/p>\n In an interview in Nuuk, Clifford E. Stanley, a retired mortgage broker from Las Vegas, explained his unusual mission to The New York Times.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy am I interested in Greenland? Because I\u2019m a broker,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I came here to present this and see if there was any interest.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cIt\u2019s a sales job.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Stanley, 86, has spent his life trying to sell mortgages, real estate and some big ideas. Years ago, he sent himself to Saudi Arabia to hustle securities, which did not work out. After that, he said, he went to Mongolia to see if there was a way for the United States to occupy it. He said he had even developed a plan to build a $1 trillion canal through the Caucasus Mountains before realizing it was way too expensive.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad\u2019s a good salesman,\u201d said Cynthia Stanley, his oldest daughter, who lives in Hawthorne, Calif.<\/p>\n But, she added, \u201che\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Stanley has been married and divorced twice. He made a decent living in San Jose, Calif., for many years, but his broker license was revoked in the early 2000s for inappropriate conduct, an incident he said \u201creally hurt me emotionally and financially.\u201d<\/p>\n His daughter said that besides playing his grand piano (his passion), he had some time on his hands. About six months ago, he became seized by Greenland.<\/p>\n Instead of buying Arctic gear for his trip, he ordered a double-breasted suit. In early May, he arrived in Nuuk, alone, and checked into a midgrade hotel. He began riding around in taxis with a neatly stapled petition that read: \u201cTerritorial referendum. Sign up $200,000 tax free.\u201d<\/p>\n Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, and most Greenlanders have expressed that they do not want to join the United States<\/a>, despite President Trump\u2019s offers. His repeated threats have not helped either, and Greenlanders have made it clear that they do not want to be bought.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first came here, nearly everybody, especially the old ladies, were yelling at me and swearing at me,\u201d Mr. Stanley said. \u201cThen two policemen knocked on my door and said, \u2018We\u2019re here to investigate you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI said: \u2018I\u2019ll cooperate fully. Anything you want,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n He said the officers took pictures of his documents, made their report and left.<\/p>\n Greenland\u2019s police officials declined to discuss the investigation with The Times. But the Greenlandic news media reported<\/a> that investigators had concluded that Mr. Stanley had not broken any laws. Still, he is being watched closely, according to photos on social media.<\/p>\n