A former top executive of a software company that engaged in illegal bookkeeping deals with America Online was sentenced to nearly three years in prison yesterday for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Jeffrey R. Anderson, a former senior vice president at PurchasePro.com Inc., a now-defunct Las Vegas software company, pleaded guilty in September in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He admitted engaging in a scheme that allowed the publicly traded company to falsely inflate revenues to meet Wall Street expectations.

As part of a plea agreement, Anderson agreed to cooperate with the investigation, which federal prosecutors said is ongoing.