NEWARK, N.J. -- Federal prosecutors on Monday moved a step closer to achieving a court-appointed takeover of the scandal-tainted IBF, one of boxing's major governing bodies.

A federal judge imposed spending restrictions on the IBF and formally barred its leaders from concealing funds or destroying records.

The action stems from a racketeering indictment and a lawsuit brought against IBF president Robert W. Lee Sr., accusing him and others of taking $338,000 in bribes to rig the organization's ratings.

In imposing a temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge John W. Bissell found that prosecutors would be likely to prove those charges at a trial. The judge said he had reviewed some of the evidence, including transcripts of taped conversations.

He ordered the IBF not to pay more than $5,000 to any entity without court approval.

Prosecutors also say the IBF is too corrupt to let Lee remain at the helm. Bissell set a Dec. 22 hearing on whether to grant their request for an order that would remove Lee and install a monitor to rehabilitate the IBF.

Prosecutors also want Lee banned from boxing for life, but that issue would probably not be resolved until after a trial.

Lawyers for Lee and the IBF argued against the restraints Monday, contending there was no evidence that the organization was being looted since Lee's indictment Nov. 3.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph G. Braunreuther, however, said Lee is improperly attempting to have the IBF pay his legal fees.

"The government wants to do the right thing here. The government wants to preserve the IBF for the benefit of the fighters," Braunreuther said.

The government's lawsuit seeking to remove Lee and install a monitor, a tactic generally used against mob-riddled labor unions, came nearly three weeks after the indictment.

Zachary Carter, the former U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, is the choice of prosecutors here to become the IBF monitor, which would be the first imposed on a sports organization.

Lee founded the East Orange-based IBF in 1983 as a nonprofit entity, pledging to bring fairness to the rankings, which help determine a boxer's opponent and purse money.

Prosecutors have made much of a for-profit IBF entity incorporated three years later in Oregon, suggesting that Lee -- majority stockholder in both corporations -- used it to siphon money from the nonprofit.

Braunreuther said Lee claimed fees taken in by the nonprofit IBF would fund pensions and scholarships for boxers. The IBF gets a share of purses for "sanctioning" fights -- agreeing that the winner will be its champion in a given weight class, for example.

In both the criminal and civil cases, prosecutors assert that the IBF rankings have been "bastardized" in nearly all weight classes. The rankings determine who gets to fight for a championship.

They charged Lee, 65, of Fanwood, N.J.; his son Robert Lee Jr., 38, of Scotch Plains, N.J., the liaison to the IBF president; former Virginia boxing commissioner Donald William Brennan, 86, a past president of the U.S. Boxing Association, a group that became the IBF; and Francisco Fernandez of Colombia, the South American representative of the IBF. Fernandez remains at large.

Lee and others have pleaded innocent, and their trial could start as early as Jan. 11.

The indictment said seven promoters and managers were involved, as well as 23 boxers. They have not been charged, and the indictment refers to them only by number. The investigation is continuing.