Owner of Framingham pharmacy that sickened hundreds gets probation

The majority owner of a shuttered Framingham pharmacy linked to a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012 will receive no jail time for illegally withdrawing thousands of dollars from bank accounts, federal prosecutors revealed Wednesday.

Carla Conigliaro, a 53-year-old Dedham resident who owned New England Compounding Center, and her husband, Douglas , 55, both received probation and a fine at sentencing Wednesday in US District Court in Boston.

Carla Conigliaro was sentenced to probation for one year and ordered to pay a $4,500 fine; her husband received two years probation and a $55,000 fine.

The couple were accused of withdrawing $124,000 in unusual sums of cash from their personal accounts in fall 2012, just as authorities traced the deadly outbreak to New England Compounding.

“The cash transactions were structured by the Conigliaros in a manner so as to evade the $10,000 reporting requirements,” according to a statement from US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.

The couple pleaded guilty in July.

Sixty-four patients across the country died and hundreds were sickened by contaminated vials of a steroid manufactured at the Framingham company.

The Conigliaros’ lawyer, David E. Meier, had urged the court to consider probation for the couple. In a sentencing recommendation filed with the court, Meier wrote that probation was a “fair and reasonable” sentence and that the two accepted full responsibility for their actions, “as well as the great shame and devastating consequences that their conduct has already brought upon themselves and their family.”

Meier also said that Carla Conigliaro has since contributed $24 million to a victims’ fund created to compensate the families of those left dead and seriously injured by the tainted medicine.

The Conigliaros did not face charges related to misdeeds at the pharmacy.

Another New England Compounding owner, Barry J. Cadden, who also was head pharmacist, and supervisory pharmacist Glenn A. Chin were charged with racketeering and second-degree murder in seven states. They are scheduled to go on trial in January.