He said: "This is a large, corrupt business that is a money-maker for the state employees who allow it to happen."

Supporters say this would help prevent corrupt businesses from winning contracts.

Who is going to buy into such a corrupt business?

It involves corrupt big business, a 19th-century Arctic explosion (seen in a prologue) and prehistoric worms, among many other features.

"They are dirty Lebanese, involved in dirty corrupt business," was a usual complaint.

Highway construction was a notably corrupt business in Mississippi, and the Padgitts knew how to play the game.

China, whose economy cannot grow much without Japanese capital and technology, is begging Japan to bail out its corrupt state-owned businesses and banks.

"In the end, what we want is a bill that goes after corrupt businesses and does not hurt honest business people," Mr. Vallone said.

Bad political systems and corrupt big business can only do what it does, because it is able to hide behind a wall of secrecy.

Mr. Krasner said these institutions were seen by many as "a corrupt and dirty business that no right-thinking human being would want to get involved in."