The Frito-Lay janitor who for a decade has claimed credit for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and created a Hollywood rags-to-riches image of himself has been outed as a fraudster.
Richard Montanez’s made-up story helped him go from being a Mexican American underdog who cleaned the factory floor to the upper crest of Frito-Lay’s management, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” Frito-Lay wrote in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend.”
Montanez, who is a charismatic, engaging speaker, has, since the late 2000s, taken credit for the neon-red Flamin’ Hot Cheetos which became so popular that they were featured in viral music videos, memes, and even streetwear.
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Montanez has capitalized on the narrative he created by writing two memoirs and speaking at high-paying events. He even has a movie based on his life set to be filmed this summer.
The movie, which is to be directed by actress Eva Longoria and produced by Searchlight Pictures, is proceeding with production despite being aware that Montanez’s story is fake.
Nobody at Frito-lay questioned the credit Montanez started taking for inventing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in the late 2000s, as most of the original corporate team that created the flavor had retired by then, and those who remained at the company didn’t stop the story from spreading.
However, in 2018, former Frito-Lay executive Lynne Greenfeld complained to the company about Montanez taking false credit for the product that she helped develop, triggering a company investigation.
Montanez claims in his memoirs and in various speaking engagements that he created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos after watching a motivational video from Roger Enrico, the CEO of Frito-Lay, who pushed all employees to “act like owners” and help grow the business.
Then, Montanez claims, he mustered the courage to call Enrico to pitch his idea for the flavor, and the CEO decided to fly out to the chip factory in Lost Angeles to see Montanez pitch his idea in person. However, the Los Angeles Times report shows that Enrico was not at Frito-Lay when Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were created in 1990, so Montanez’s account could not be accurate.
There is some truth behind Montanez’s story of working his way to up to the top, though.
In 1994, four years after corporate executives at Frito-Lay rolled out Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Montanez helped create Flamin’ Hot Popcorn as an extension of the same brand while working in a chips factory outside Los Angeles.
Montanez then went from a factory floor machine operator to a tech services specialist before rising to a director-level position within company management, the Los Angeles Times reported. He picked up a number of awards from Frito-Lay and community groups during this journey and has now retired in his early 60s.
Montanez posted a video response on his Instagram account hours after the story was published on Sunday.
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“I don’t care what room you’re in, there’s always somebody in the room that’s going to try to steal your destiny. They may even say you never existed,” Montanez said in the video. “I want you to do this: Write down your history, because if you don’t, somebody else will. Remember that. And also remember this, the best way to destroy a positive message is to destroy the messenger. Never allow that to happen to you. I’m certainly not going to allow it to happen to me.”
