San Juan, Puerto Rico ? Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila indignantly denied wrongdoing Thursday and gave no sign he would abandon his re-election effort after being charged with campaign finance violations that carry a penalty of 20 years in prison.

Acevedo, a superdelegate to this summer’s Democratic convention, accused U.S. prosecutors of pursuing a politically motivated indictment alleging that the governor and a dozen other people conspired to illegally pay off his campaign debts.

“I am going to defend my rights and protect the dignity of my family and of the people of Puerto Rico who support me,” the governor said in a statement hours after the FBI arrested most of those named in the indictment in San Juan, Philadelphia and Washington area.

Acevedo served in Washington as the island’s nonvoting delegate to Congress then was elected governor in 2004 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform.

At a late-night meeting with members of his Popular Democratic Party, Acevedo agreed to do anything necessary – including resign – to keep the investigation from harming the organization, former party leader Miguel Hernandez Agosto said.

Hernandez and other party members declined to say whether they had asked the governor to resign. Acevedo left the closed-door meeting without answering reporters’ questions.