There are few people whose careers have taken a worse nosedive than mine, but Ben Parr might be one of them. At the very least I can say that Ben and I have been on similar downward trajectories, and for that reason alone I feel a kind of kinship for him. And I am loath to mock him for making money in men's rooms in Las Vegas, because I fear that after this gig at Valleywag that kind of work might be all that is left to me, and at my age it won't be easy.

Former Motionloft CEO Jonathan Mills has pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud. The San Francisco entrepreneur, who raised funding from Mark Cuban, was arrested by the FBI in February. He admitted to spending "substantial amounts" of his victims' money on "vacations and other entertainment," like that time he hired Grammy-award winner Miguel (above) for a private show and numerous trips to Vegas.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's deeply sad plan to transform Downtown Las Vegas—the bleakest part of a bleak town—into a startup enclave is dying, Las Vegas Weekly reports. Huge layoffs just arrived, and one of the $350 million project's leaders is already publicly blasting Hsieh.

You can get away with a lot in the ego-lacquered corridors of tech—but if people think you stole their money, they're going to try to tear you apart. TechCrunch's Ryan Lawler is on the trail of alleged startup crook Jon Mills, who friends say blew tons of cash in Vegas. Their cash.

There's a reason the Goldman Sachs Private Internet Company Conference is held in Vegas, and not, say, Northern Virginia. The "fuckfest" weekend is a fat, ripe chance for bankers to give startup crews—who might go public someday—the drunken time of their lives.

Goldman Sachs annual conference wooing tech startups is currently underway in Las Vegas and TechCrunch got its hands on the agenda for what it calls "one of the most high-end and hush-hush events in the tech world."

There's not much to say about Tech Cocktail, and the firm says that little bit itself: it's "a media company and events organization for startups, entrepreneurs, and technology enthusiasts." Networking stuff. Simple stuff—and something apparently worth a giant investment from the head of Zappos.