Nikki Haley strongly denies rumors of looming tax indictment

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley strongly denied rumors Thursday that she could be indicted on charges of tax fraud in connection with a Sikh center where her parents are top officials.

"Sorry, fellas. I'm not going anywhere, no matter how many lies you put on a blog. The days of dirty blogger politics will come to an end when people stop paying these guys to spread trash," Haley said in a post to her Facebook and Twitter pages.

The statement was prompted by a report in the Palmetto Public Record that anonymously cited "two well-placed legal experts" who said they expected the Department of Justice to issue an indictment against the governor as early as this week.

The blog says that the IRS has been investigating a Sikh temple run by the governor's father that is accused of not paying nearly $130,000 to contractors who helped construct a new worship center. The Public Record said Haley managed the temple's finances as recently as 2003.

But Haley categorically denied the report.

“It is flat out not true,” Haley told the Columbia State.

“I have never kept their books. I’ve never made deposits. I never signed checks. I never did financial statements,” Haley said. “This is a church that I don’t go to. There are no issues related to me and that church.”

Haley, who has strong ties to the Tea Party, endorsed Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential race, campaigning just last week for the former Massachusetts governor in Pennsylvania. There has been some speculation that Haley could be a dark-horse candidate as Romney's running mate, although that chatter faded somewhat after she was unable to deliver her home state, which ended up a victory for Newt Gingrich's campaign.

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