LOS ANGELES — Former PepsiCo executive Richard Montanez is suing the food and beverage giant in connection with a dispute over whether he’s the inventor of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos spicy cheese puff snacks.

Filed in the Superior Court of the State of California in San Bernardino on July 18, the lawsuit claims PepsiCo and its Frito-Lay snacks division engaged in fraud, racial discrimination, defamation and violations of California’s unfair competition law in alleging that Montanez is not the creator of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The complaint seeks a jury trial, damages, restitution and an order preventing PepsiCo and Frito-Lay from claiming Montanez didn’t originate Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

“I created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos not only as a product but as a movement and as a loyal executive for PepsiCo,” Montanez said. “PepsiCo believed in me as a leader because they knew people would follow me, and they did because they knew my soul is my community. We built this into a $2 billion industry, and I cannot let them take away my legacy or destroy my reputation. I will not let them silence me.”

Purchase, NY-based PepsiCo declined to comment on the lawsuit because the litigation is pending.

“We are looking forward to presenting the merits of this case to a jury,” stated Eric George, partner at Los Angeles-based law firm Ellis George LLP, which announced the lawsuit on July 22.

Montanez was vice president of multicultural marketing and sales at PepsiCo when he retired from the company in 2019, according to the suit. He had worked his way up the ranks to that post after, as a high school dropout, he joined Frito-Lay as a janitor prior to the snack maker’s acquisition by PepsiCo in 1965.

The lawsuit stems from a May 2021 Los Angeles Times article, in which Frito-Lay staff challenged Montanez’s claim that he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Frito-Lay said no records show his involvement in the Flamin’ Hot test market. The complaint also alleged that PepsiCo initiated a campaign to disavow Montanez’s role in the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and that the “false and defamatory media coverage” damaged Montanez’s reputation and career.

According to the suit, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were launched in 1992 after Montanez had pitched his spicy version of the snack to Frito-Lay the year before. A machine breakdown in Frito-Lay’s Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., plant had left an unflavored batch of Cheetos, which Montanez took home to his kitchen and experimented with different seasonings. He later presented his Mexican-flavored concoction to Frito-Lay executives, who agreed to develop and market the product, the suit said.

Following his rise to executive at PepsiCo and subsequent retirement from the company, Montanez pursued a career as a motivational speaker and consultant, the suit said, and his “American dream” story led to the publication of memoirs in 2013 and 2021 and to the Eva Longoria-directed movie “Flamin’ Hot” in 2023.