The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating dealings between former Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill and a former top aide who now works at Goldman Sachs .

Regulators sent subpoenas to the current Massachusetts' treasurer late on Friday requesting emails, phone records and other documents related to the probe, a spokesman for Treasurer Steve Grossman said on Monday.

Barry Nolan said the office is cooperating fully with the request but declined to comment further about exactly what the government is looking for.

The spokesman said the SEC's probe currently has no impact on the state's ability to raise money.

The Boston Globe, which first reported the subpoena on Monday, said the probe is focused on determining whether there might have been improper contact between Cahill staff and Neil Morrison, formerly Cahill's first deputy.

Cahill unsuccessfully ran for governor last year.

Morrison, who left the Treasurer's office in 2006 and joined Goldman in 2008, helped negotiate a $456 million bond deal in 2010 with a state water-pollution control board that Cahill chaired and operated within the treasurer's office, the Globe said.

Goldman Sachs earned an estimated $2 million from the deal.

The probe allegedly also focuses on an email Morrison, who was listed as a top political adviser by Cahill, reportedly sent during work hours from a private email account to consultants working on Cahill's gubernatorial campaign, the Globe said.

If Morrison broke any rules he could be fined and possibly lose his broker's license.

A Goldman spokesman declined to comment. Morrison could not be reached.

Goldman is no stranger to intense scrutiny from securities regulators, which it has tried to deflect in recent weeks with pledges for more openness.

In April 2010 the SEC sued Goldman, alleging fraud over its marketing of a subprime mortgage product, a case the firm ultimately settled for $550 million last July.

Goldman later got in trouble with regulators for not moving fast enough to disclose that probe. British and U.S. authorities fined the company as a result.

More recently the firm got caught in a misstep over a private investment in social network Facebook it marketed to top clients. The firm ended up having to exclude U.S. clients from the deal for fear of running afoul of securities laws.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Ben Berkowitz, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

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