For years, a 46-year-old bookkeeper handled the finances for a family-owned Jackson hotel business. Even after she moved to Hawaii, the family trusted her to keep doing the job remotely.
But beginning around February 2019, federal prosecutors say Laura Marie Means was helping herself to the company's money, disguising transfers in the books and ultimately stealing nearly $1.5 million from a business whose owners had come to consider her part of the family.
Now the former Town Square Inns bookkeeper is headed to federal prison for nearly four years.
U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson sentenced Means this past Tuesday to 46 months in prison for wire fraud and 36 months for filing a false tax return, with the sentences running at the same time.
Means was ordered to repay $1,484,104.80 to her former employer and another $355,875.32 to the IRS — nearly $1.84 million altogether.
She has until Dec. 2 to report to federal prison. The judge recommended she serve her sentence at the minimum-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas — roughly 100 miles northwest of Houston.
Red Flags
Means had been working for Town Square Inns since 2015, eventually taking on enormous responsibility for the company's finances. Federal prosecutors say she controlled employee payroll, bank accounts, and tax reporting.
Her relationship with the family was more personal than employer and employee. The FBI said the family trusted Means and considered her one of their own.
When Means moved to Hawaii in 2019, Town Square Inns allowed her to keep the job remotely, with the expectation that she would return to Jackson monthly.
Means was an ocean away but still had access to much of the financial machinery of the family-owned hotel business, but the arrangement began coming apart after Town Square Inns founder Clarene Law died in 2022.
Her daughter, Charisse Haws, began noticing problems with the company's finances, including payroll irregularities and late filings, she told investigators in the state case.
Haws also began questioning Means about her compensation. When she tried digging into the company's payroll accounts herself, she discovered she no longer had full administrative access, court records say.
Those red flags prompted a deeper look at the books.
Investigators alleged Means was able to hide unauthorized payments and transfers in part because she was the person entrusted with keeping the company's books and watching its money.
Cowboy State Daily reached out to Haws for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
Business Expenses
Federal prosecutors say Means used her access to Town Square Inns' accounting system to disguise money she was taking as routine business expenses.
Transfers into her own accounts could be disguised in QuickBooks as ordinary expenses, such as supplies and invoices.
Means also maintained access to company bank accounts and moved money into accounts she controlled without authorization.
The federal case gives one particularly blunt example.
On Sept. 17, 2025, Means transferred $24,187.26 from a Town Square Inns bank account into her personal Wells Fargo account, prosecutors charged. She then falsified bookkeeping entries to conceal what she'd done.
Investigators say Means also paid herself twice — once as a full-time employee and again as an independent contractor through multiple Town Square Inns entities. She gave herself unauthorized bonuses, cashed out nearly $77,000 in paid time off she wasn't eligible to receive, and collected duplicate travel reimbursements.
Means was arrested in September 2025 at the Antler Inn office on West Pearl Avenue while back in town. At that point, the state investigation accused her of stealing more than $800,000 -- but when federal prosecutors filed their case in June, they alleged Means' scheme involved at least approximately $1.78 million between February 2019 and September 2025.
The Sept. 17 transfer became the basis for the federal wire fraud count to which Means later pleaded guilty.
Federal Tax Return
There was another problem with moving hundreds of thousands of dollars around: The IRS.
Means reported $159,923 in total income that year.
Federal prosecutors say Means knew she'd actually received at least $585,703.29 — more than $425,000 beyond what she reported.
Means prepared and signed the return in Hawaii before filing it with the IRS, the federal Information says.
That became the second federal charge against her: Filing a false tax return.
She pleaded guilty July 16 and remained free on a $20,000 unsecured bond while awaiting sentencing.
Pay It Back
At sentencing, three victims came to federal court for the hearing. Each stood and read a victim-impact statement, court records show.
The sentencing stretched for more than four hours over three sessions that day.
Means' total restitution obligation is $1,839,980.
The money is due immediately, with payments to continue through the federal prison system's Inmate Financial Responsibility Program. Once she's released, she'll have to make monthly payments of at least 10% of her gross income while on supervised release.
Federal probation will also continue watching her finances.
Means must provide complete financial information to probation, can't take on new credit or debt without approval, and has to report significant changes to her financial circumstances. She's also required to tell employers about her conviction.
For now, though, Means remains out of custody.
Johnson ordered her to surrender at the prison designated by the federal Bureau of Prisons by 1:30 p.m. Dec. 2.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
