The Crown, defence lawyers and a judge all agreed Friday that prison was not a suitable punishment for the former general manager of Imagine Adoption.
Rick Hayhow, 50, was instead sentenced to six months of house arrest, followed by 18 months of probation.
Hayhow pleaded guilty last fall to one count of fraud in connection with his time running the Cambridge-based adoption agency, which suddenly went bankrupt in 2009 – stranding hundreds of families in the middle of the adoption process.
Documents introduced in court showed that Hayhow charged nearly $87,000 worth of personal expenses to an Imagine Adoption credit card.
He reimbursed the agency for about $15,000 of those expenses.
His ex-wife, former Imagine Adoption executive director Susan Hayhow, remains before the courts on fraud charges.