A judge accepted a guilty plea by Guidant, on charges that it hid defects in heart defibrillators, and placed the company on three years’ probation to deter similar conduct.

Judge Donovan W. Frank, of the United States District Court in St. Paul, agreed on Wednesday to honor Guidant’s plea agreement after rejecting it in April. Boston Scientific agreed in November that Guidant, one of its units, would plead guilty to two misdemeanors and pay $296 million to settle a Justice Department inquiry. Judge Frank added the probationary term at the hearing.

“There were decisions made deliberately to advantage the company by withholding information and misrepresenting information,” Robert Lewis, an assistant United States attorney, said in court.

Prosecutors said in court papers that officials at Guidant learned as early as 2002 that some of the implantable defibrillators had a tendency to short-circuit and cause deaths. The company did not disclose the defects for more than three years, prosecutors said.