At least $107 million in legal claims have been made against what once was the Tristate's fourth-largest home builder.

The scandal also has swallowed Peoples Bank of Northern Kentucky, which was bought last month by the Bank of Kentucky for $15 million. The federal investigation continues, and criminal charges are expected to be filed in January. (Archive of Erpenbeck coverage)

Stocks evoke Depression era

The worst stock market in 30 years turned into the worst market in 60 years in 2002 when Wall Street saw stocks drop for a third straight year. The last time a bear market lasted so long was 1939-41, during the Great Depression. Major indexes are poised to finish the year 40 percent off their peak.

Corporations started the year reporting better profits, and stock prices looked like they might rebound. But investors lost confidence in Wall Street and the earnings reporting system - on which stock prices are based - because of continued corporate accounting scandals. The specter of further terrorist attacks and war also kept investors from buying. Will this continue in 2003?

Home sales likely to set record

With Tristate consumers taking advantage of 36-year lows in mortgage interest rates, 2002 home sales will likely set another record.

Sales of previously owned homes in Greater Cincinnati, spurred by banner sales in Southwest Ohio, are expected to break last year's record, helping offset a sluggish stock market and lower consumer confidence that hurt the overall U.S. economy.

The number of homes sold through November in Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana reached 25,545 through November, up from 24,946 during the first 11 months of 2001, according to local boards of Realtors.

Expect more indictments in '03

First it was Enron Corp. in late 2001. Then in 2002, a bankrupt Global Crossing admitted cooking its books. But it was the $7 billion fraud at WorldCom, led by Bernie Ebbers (left), which turned corporate America upside down.

Investors who lost confidence in the system sold shares, often for a loss; legislators scrambled to investigate the wrongdoing and write new preventative laws - including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which established a federal board to regulate auditors.

Expect more indictments in the Enron case in 2003, as well as the first look at how well the new laws work.

Banana market stays squishy

Chiquita Brands International Inc. ended 2002 with new management and new stockholders, but the same shaky banana market that has bedeviled the company for years.

Reds owner Carl Lindner (left) no longer is an officer or director of Chiquita. After the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, it appointed former Booz Allen Hamilton executive Cyrus Freidheim as chairman and chief executive officer, replacing Steve Warshaw.

Mr. Lindner resigned from the board several months later, and has started to sell many of his Chiquita shares.

In 2003, watch for Chiquita to cut some operations.