An energetic entrepreneur who with his wife sought to upgrade housing in the Blackwell community and add new businesses to Manchester’s old downtown along Hull Street is facing federal fraud charges.

Michael Hild was arrested Aug. 28 after a federal grand jury indicted him on a series of criminal charges related to his collapsed Chesterfield-based Live Well Financial, a once high-flying mortgage company.

The founder and chief executive officer of the 14-year-old company, Mr. Hild is facing government charges related to security fraud, mail fraud and bank fraud as well as civil charges related to the company’s practices before the company locked its doors in May and ceased operations.

He pleaded not guilty last week and has been released before trial on a $500,000 bond. He has acknowledged the business failed and issued a statement in response to the charges that “every business failure is not a corporate crime.”

The government alleges that he and two other top executives at the mortgage company, who already have pleaded guilty to similar charges and are cooperating witnesses, inflated the value of the company’s portfolio by at least $65 million to gain bigger supporting loans from banks and others. The government alleges they then used the money for other purposes, including lavish lifestyles and opening other businesses.

In recent years, Mr. Hild and his business partner and wife, Laura Dyer Hild, had won attention with their big plans in South Side.

They acquired dozens of properties, including decaying houses and buildings in Blackwell, Manchester and along Hull Street, and then spearheaded a drive to gain historic designation to raise property values.

One of their projects involved the renovation of a former Siegel’s grocery store at Hull and 20th streets for a possible food manufacturing plant. The Hilds also opened a doughnut shop, a craft beer brewery and a market/café on Hull Street.

Their work, along with that of other developers, has been blamed or credited for dramatically boosting rents and for raising property tax bills for existing residents.

The government last Friday filed a court motion to seize 29 properties, including eight businesses that are now mostly in Mrs. Hild’s name, as “proceeds of the fraud.” The motion seeks to halt the Hilds from trying to sell their holdings, which also include an oyster farm and a goat cheese operation.

The collapse of Live Well during the spring led to layoffs for several hundred employees and to a parade of lenders seeking repayment of tens of millions of dollars in loans going to court to force the company into bankruptcy.

A former Capital One executive, Mr. Hild and his attorneys noted that he co-operated in the government’s investigation of the collapse.

Started in 2005, the company originated and serviced reverse mortgages that enable senior citizens to borrow against the equity in their home while continuing to live there. The loans are repaid when the property is sold after the borrower relocates or dies.

According to the government, Live Well represented to lenders that its mortgage portfolio was worth $500 million, though government accounting indicates that the portfolio was worth at least $65 million less.