Two former top officials of William Tyndale College, including its ex-president, have been charged with using fraud to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal student-aid money, some of which went to a training institute that they owned.

The former president of the private Michigan college, James C. McHann, and a former vice president for academic affairs and dean, W. Howard Burkeen, were each charged with 22 counts of wire fraud, lying to investigators, and taking federal financial aid by fraud, according to a written statement issued last month by the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit, which is prosecuting the case. Each charge carries a penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Federal prosecutors are also seeking the restitution of all the student-aid funds from the two men.

Martin E. Crandall, Mr. McHann's lawyer, did not return calls seeking comment on Monday. Mr. Burkeen's lawyer, David Griem, declined to comment on the case.

According to the indictiment, the two administrators bought a bankrupt computer school in 2001, while still employed by the college, and reopened it as the Tyndale Technical Institute. They reported to the Education Department that the institute's students were attending William Tyndale College and were therefore eligible for federal financial aid.

The students, however, were merely taking computer courses and were not officially enrolled at the college. The two men received about $318,000 of the $517,000 that the college received in federal student aid, according to Gina M. Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.

The two men left their positions at the university in 2001. Karen E. Mulligan, director of community relations for the college, declined to specify the circumstances under which they left.

The college was not a target of the investigation, according to the statement from the prosecutor's office, but had to return about $200,000 to the Department of Education as a result of the incident, according to Ms. Balaya.

The college, meanwhile, has had financial problems of its own, and by 2003 was on the brink of closing. It was rescued when it became affiliated with Regent University, a Virginia institution that was founded by the religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.