Payroll Plunder: St. Louis Park Biz Owner Gets 28-Months In Prison

ST. PAUL, MN — The owner of a payroll service based in St. Louis Park has been sentenced to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $430,000 in restitution to more than two dozen former clients and the IRS, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.

On Sept. 27, Jeana Lautigar, also known as Jeana Lautigar-McGowan, 58, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of handling stolen money and filing a false tax return.

She was sentenced last week by Judge Donovan W. Frank.

Lautigar-McGowan ran a payroll service for small businesses and had access to her clients’ bank accounts to help with the service.

Between 2016 and 2020, Lautigar-McGowan stole money from her clients’ accounts, using it for personal expenses or to pay back money she had stolen earlier from other clients, authorities said.

She transferred money from her clients’ accounts to one of her own accounts — in amounts that seemed like regular payroll payments — and spent the money on things she wasn’t authorized to do.

In total, she took $344,813 over five years, investigators said.

On Feb. 6, 2020, Lautigar-McGowan began trying to cover up her actions by transferring money from one of her accounts, which had been funded with stolen money, into another client’s account.

She also filed false tax returns, leaving out the stolen income, which caused a $84,746 loss to the government, authorities said.

This case was investigated by the IRS — Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Lewis and Esther Soria handled the case.