An Edina certified public accountant has received a prison term of more than two years for tapping into her clients' bank accounts and stealing more than $340,000.

Jeana Ann Lautigar, now Lautigar-McGowan, 58, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty to making monetary transactions connected to a crime and failing to file taxes in connection with the thefts that spanned from 2016 until 2020.

Along with the 2⅓-year prison term, Lautigar-McGowan was ordered to reimburse her victims in full and pay nearly $85,000 to the Internal Revenue Service to cover lost tax collections.

The charges allege that Lautigar embezzled $344,813 from her clients' bank accounts while providing accounting and payroll services from her office in St. Louis Park under Edina Business Solutions and Jeana Lautigar CPA Inc.

Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors argued in writing to the court for Lautigar-McGowan to receive a 2½-year prison term.

She spent the money on "personal expenses, purchases and in some cases to be transferred back to cover up theft from a different client," the filing read. "She stole money from at least 25 clients, including one client who lost nearly $100,000."

The prosecution pointed out that she wasn't victimizing large or wealthy corporations but "small mom-and-pop businesses whose fiscal survival is never fully assured from year to year. ... She merely wanted to elevate herself to greater riches than she already had."

Defense attorney Craig Cascarano responded in his filing that Lautigar-McGowan should be spared prison, contending that her yearslong challenges with alcohol and her mental health "contributed, if not were the sole reasons for this criminal conduct."

Cascarano added that Lautigar-McGowan used a large amount of the money "to attempt to invest in the stock market, which is nothing more than fulfilling her gambling addiction."