‘General’ Pleads Guilty to Impersonating Military Officer : Courts: Man who showed up in uniform to negotiate Taco Bell contract had never been in armed forces, according to judicial records.

A man who pretended to be a general and Medal of Honor winner to obtain $2 million in contracts from Taco Bell pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of impersonating an Army officer, according to court documents.

Guadalupe DeLeon Gonzalez, 60, can receive up to six years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine when he is sentenced later this year in U.S. District Court.

Gonzalez, an Indiana native, traveled to Irvine beginning in 1993 to negotiate the contracts with PepsiCo Food Systems, Taco Bell’s parent company.

Gonzalez, who was never in the Army or any other branch of the U.S. military, impressed Taco Bell officials with phony service records, tales of heroism and bragged that he was the “highest decorated general still living,” the documents said.

He was part-owner of a Wanamaker, Ind., company called Inca Continental Corp. In October, 1993, Taco Bell began paying Inca on a $1.7-million contract to retrofit seating at existing Taco Bell restaurants.

During his first meeting with company officials in July, 1993, Gonzalez said he was a brigadier general. He also told company officials that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts and was a Ranger and Special Forces trooper.

In April, 1995, Gonzalez promoted himself to a major general and received a $19,337 consulting contract from Taco Bell, the court documents said, adding that, while negotiating the contract, Gonzalez attended a meeting dressed in Army greens complete with bloused trousers, combat boots and rows of ribbons.

At about the same time that Gonzalez got the consulting contract, his business partner began to have doubts about Gonzalez’s background and dissolved the partnership. The man then alerted Taco Bell officials that Gonzalez might be a phony.

PepsiCo officials checked with Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Ind., where Gonzalez claimed to be stationed, and learned that he was not on the post’s roster. They also checked the list of Medal of Honor recipients and found that Gonzalez’s name was not there.

Then they called the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, which began a probe. Gonzalez was arrested in August and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. At the arraignment, Gonzalez’s first lawyer said that his client’s former business partner was “spreading these bitter rumors about him.”

On Friday, defense attorney Jim Waltz, who represented Gonzalez in the plea agreement, declined to comment about his client’s guilty plea.

PepsiCo officials could not be reached for comment.