The executives were some of the closest advisers to Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince, and helped him steer the company during its swift rise to become the leading contractor providing security for American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan, working for the State Department, the C.I.A. and the Pentagon.

They were also the senior executives in charge during the company’s most turbulent period, after its security guards were involved in a series of shootings, including one in Baghdad in 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Mr. Prince, who was not charged, remains at the helm of the company, now known as Xe Services, while many other executives have left as the company has sought to reshape its public image in the face of mounting legal and political scrutiny.

While the indictment is somewhat limited in scope, it could be the government’s opening salvo in a broader offensive to bring criminal charges against the company. They could include charges for bribery and export violations, according to officials familiar with the case, perhaps under a strategy of turning former and current executives of the company against one another.

A federal grand jury in Raleigh, N.C., issued the 15-count indictment against Gary Jackson, Blackwater’s former president; William Matthews, the former executive vice president; Andrew Howell, the former general counsel; Ana Bundy, a former vice president; and Ronald Slezak, a former weapons manager, charging that they conspired to skirt federal weapons laws and then tried to hide their actions.

The charges stem in part from a 2008 raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms of Blackwater’s Moyock, N.C., headquarters complex, where agents seized 22 weapons, including 17 AK-47s.

The former officials are charged with trying to hide the company’s purchases of the weapons by making it seem as if they had been bought by a North Carolina sheriff’s office. Blackwater sought to have the sheriff pose as the owner of the weapons because federal firearms law made it illegal for Blackwater to have so many of them, according to the indictment.

Other charges relate to the company’s large inventory of short-barrel rifles, deadly and especially useful in tight spots, which by law must be registered. Federal prosecutors charge that Blackwater shipped the weapons overseas with the barrels detached in an effort to avoid export regulations.

The executives are also charged with trying to hide gifts of expensive weapons to Jordanian officials who were visiting Blackwater at a time when the company was trying to win contracts from Jordan’s government.

Former Blackwater officials say that Mr. Jackson ran the company on a day-to-day basis, along with his top aide, Mr. Matthews, and would be knowledgeable about virtually all of the company’s actions.

Reached by telephone, Mr. Jackson declined to comment. His lawyer, Kenneth Bell, did not return a call seeking comment. Mr. Bell told The Associated Press that the charges against Mr. Jackson were false.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Xe Services, said that the company had been cooperating. “The company is aware of the charges against former executives,” he said in a written statement. “As we’ve stated before, the company has fully cooperated with the Department of Justice investigation. Given the pending criminal charges, the company will not comment further.”

The charges against the top former officials follow lengthy federal investigations of lower-level Blackwater personnel. Five former Blackwater guards were charged with manslaughter in the September 2007 shooting in Nisour Square in Baghdad, but those charges were dismissed last December.

Two guards who worked for a Blackwater subsidiary in Afghanistan were arrested in January on murder charges in connection with a shooting in Kabul last May. Other shootings have also been the subject of lengthy federal investigations, including one in 2006 in which a Blackwater guard killed an Iraqi guard.

But prosecutors have recently begun to focus on the company’s management as well. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether Blackwater officials bribed Iraqi officials so the company could continue to operate in Iraq after the 2007 shooting.