FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A Minnesota man accused of setting up a Facebook account under a false identity and using the site to contact a 13-year-old girl for sex has been sentenced in North Dakota to 12 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon says 36-year-old Darrin Anderson of Middle River, Minn., pleaded guilty in February to a charge of travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

Authorities say Anderson traveled from the northeast North Dakota town of Walhalla, where he was working, to East Grand Forks, Minn., to have sex with the girl in exchange for $300 in August 2009.

Purdon says the investigation revealed that Anderson had engaged in hundreds of private chats with girls and attempted to solicit them for sex.