The former chief executive officer of the Bank of the Commonwealth and three former bank vice presidents have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they conspired to commit bank fraud.

The Bank of the Commonwealth was headquartered in Norfolk, serving Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina until it failed in 2011.

The indictment unsealed Thursday says top executives masked non-performing assets at the bank for their own personal benefit and to the detriment of the bank.

Among other things, the indictment says they conspired to conceal the bank's true condition by funneling bank-owned property to troubled borrowers and overdrawing demand deposit accounts to make loan payments.

The indictment says the bank's failure will cost the federal government through an insurance fund more than $260 million.