Tower woman sentenced for stealing $340K from small businesses

A Tower woman has been sentenced to prison for embezzling nearly $350,000 from small businesses that hired her to provide accounting and payroll services.

Jeana Lautigar-McGowan, 58, received the 28-month term from Senior U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank last week after pleading guilty to money laundering and tax charges.

“Lautigar-McGowan repeatedly prioritized her own financial ends at the expense of her trusting clients,” prosecutor Robert Lewis told the court. “These were not large, wealthy corporations. They were small, mom-and-pop businesses whose fiscal survival is never fully assured from year to year.

“And her actions were not a one-time mistake,” Lewis said. “Far from it. She spent years defrauding others out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Lautigar-McGowan operated the Twin Cities-based Edina Business Solutions, Inc. and Jeana Lautigar CPA, Inc. research defunding.jpg

Court documents say the thefts spanned five years and impacted at least 25 clients, with Lautigar-McGowan using her access to their bank accounts to conduct transfers in amounts appearing consistent with their payroll.

Authorities said the embezzlement totaled $344,813 between 2016-20, with Lautigar-McGowan also failing to pay $84,746 in federal taxes on the stolen income.