The Federal Court of Australia has granted special permissions to the liquidators of the collapsed Mosaic Brands to increase the scope of their investigation into the group.

Mosaic Brands, the owner of Noni B, Rivers, Katies, Rockmans, Millers, Autograph, Beme, Crossroads, and W Lane, entered voluntary administration in October, 2024, before collapsing into liquidation last year. The group was then fined $25 million by the Federal Court for breaches of Australian Consumer Law, in a long-running probe into the major retailer’s demise.

A key part of the investigation hinges on whether the directors were aware of the group’s looming fate, something which could amount to the illegal act of trading while insolvent.

This line of enquiry led to the recently disclosed court document, which details the order granting the data technology company LawInOrder, enlisted by the special purpose liquidators, to scour documents for mentions of safe harbour and 588GA, which would then be placed under the court’s possession.

The court’s escalation will target the directors’ use of safe harbour provisions, which refer to directors’ ongoing trading and attempted restructuring of an ailing business in a way that is legally absolved of being insolvent trading. The safe harbour defence can also be known as the 588GA defence.

These “potentially privileged documents”, Justice Markovic says, will be produced despite the potential wishes of the directors to conceal them.”

It follows the directors claiming they relied on the safe harbour defence when the insolvent trading probe began; all material between January 2020 and July 2025 is under the microscope. If the directors were found not to have been acting with a viable plan, the safe harbour defence would be moot.

The court will reconvene on May 28 for the next chapter of the case.