Taos IHOP manager revealed to be Fred Brito

While Covid-19 is dominating the news cycle around the world, in Taos, New Mexico, Fred Brito has managed to become a front page story.

At the top of this week's Taos News is a photo of Brito with the headline, "The pancake con man." In the article, reporter John Miller interviews Brito about his long history of being "one of the more notorious con men living in the United States today," and ultimately how he ended up being hired to work at their local IHOP using a falsified resume and an assumed name.

The article is partly the result of a tip this blogger sent their way last month. We discovered Brito had been working as General Manager of the IHOP under the name Max Gomis DeMaria. Miller gives credit to this blog for tipping them off, but overlooks that one month ago the Taos News had already published an article about "Max Gomis DeMaria", and that they deleted from their website soon after they were alerted to his identity.

The March 5 article was called "Breakfast and a new beginning: IHOP starts fresh", praising the work of their general manager, accompanied by a photo of restaurant staff and management, including  Fred Brito.

A screenshot of the article as it appeared online -- Fred Brito is on the far left.

According to the article, "Max" was hired by IHOP last September to help improve a restaurant that was facing customer service and staffing challenges, and that "Gomis DeMaria and his team are steadily reaching the peak of excellence that is their goal." While the print edition labeled the article as an "advertorial" (a paid advertisement that otherwise appears to be an article), the online version did not indicate this.


Within a week, the article disappeared from the site, but only after this blogger reached out their way to let them know "Max" was actually Fred Brito. We have seen no mention of the deletion to readers since.
In the current article, Miller dives deep into Brito's history, including detail on his various prison sentences, and noting various discrepancies of his claims.  Checking up on Brito's claims of military service Miller issued a Freedom of Information Act request and couldn't quite match up the name or birth date Brito told him he enlisted under.

Brito does give the blogger a shout out, referring to me as his stalker. Meanwhile, Miller infers, without evidence, there might be a personal vendetta behind my running this site, though he doesn't suggest one. (Readers: there isn't one, but feel free to speculate in the comments!)

What I found most striking in the article is that Miller makes efforts to credit Brito for having done good work in a variety of the jobs he was hired for. While some former bosses have gone on record commending Brito, most of the claims, such as how much money he raised in fundraising roles, seem to come from Brito himself, or aren't paired against how those organizations typically raised. Additionally, Brito is oddly given credit for using money and services from his employers for donations and other programs.

From the top of the front page of the
April 16 edition of the Taos News.

By our count, this is the third time Brito has been hired by IHOP. We reported previously that he was hired, then fired, by a Kansas City location in September 2012, where he reportedly used his legal name (Gomez de Maria). Prior to this he worked at a Midland, TX location.

Miller mentions in the Taos News that at the time he went to print, Brito was still employed by IHOP, though reassigned to another location as the Taos location was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.