A federal judge ordered the release Tuesday of former world kickboxing champion Dennis Alexio pending trial on theft of public money, tax fraud, money laundering and other charges. Alexio, however, remains in custody while the prosecutor appeals the order.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi ordered Alexio, 54, released on an unsecured $25,000 signature bond.

He also stayed his order to allow prosecutor Marshall Silverberg to appeal the release.

Silverberg took the appeal to U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright three hours later.

Seabright continued the hearing to Monday because he said he wasn’t able to listen to the recording of the earlier bail hearing and because he wants the court’s pretrial services to interview Alexio and issue a report.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment earlier this month charging Alexio and his wife, Anitalei, with filing fraudulent tax returns and converting hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeserved refunds into cashier’s checks to prevent the government from reclaiming the money.

The indictment also charges Alexio with helping another woman file a fraudulent tax return to claim an undeserved $221,369 refund.

The woman’s former boyfriend Tommy Thomas testified Tuesday that he used his own money to pay Alexio half of the value of the refund, per their agreement. When the IRS reclaimed the refund, Thomas said Alexio refused to pay back the money.

"It was a con job from the beginning," he said.

Thomas said Alexio left him, his girlfriend and her two children starving and with no money.

In a second case, Alexio is charged with using phony financial documents to purchase and receive $85,987 worth of U.S. Mint silver coins and $99,959 worth of gold bars from an online precious metal dealer in Oklahoma and attempted to purchase an additional $297,690 worth of gold bars.

Following Alexio’s arrest Thursday outside Starbucks Coffee in Aiea, federal authorities searched his Aiea home, his sport utility vehicle and the fanny pack he was carrying.

Silverberg said the searches did not turn up any of the silver coins or gold bars.

The IRS said it found cashier’s check receipts in the fanny pack and SUV. The agency said it also found in the SUV tax forms, blank documents of the type used to purchase the silver coins and gold bars, and a book titled "Unlocking the Secrets of the Federal Reserve."

Silverberg told Puglisi and Seabright that he opposes Alexio’s release because he believes Alexio will refuse to return to court as he had already done four times in previous cases.