Nevada’s federal court sits at the intersection of the casino economy and federal criminal law. The United States District Court for the District of Nevada hears every federal prosecution in the state from its courthouses in Las Vegas and Reno, and its docket tilts hard toward fraud, money laundering, and firearms cases — a reflection of a state where casinos are treated as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and where investment money moves fast. If you are under federal investigation or charge in Nevada, the court’s particular habits matter to your defense from day one.
Below, we walk through the District of Nevada as a defendant experiences it: the bench in Las Vegas and Reno, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and its current leadership, the casino-driven money-laundering enforcement that distinguishes this district, and the route our firm takes to appear there. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. handles federal trial defense, appeals, and post-conviction litigation nationwide, and Elizabeth Franklin-Best represents federal defendants in the District of Nevada through admission pro hac vice. This page belongs to the firm’s federal courts directory.
Whether the case is a grand jury subpoena from Las Vegas, a fraud indictment in Reno, or a Title 31 inquiry touching a gaming business, our paid, one-hour initial consultation puts the facts in front of an experienced federal defense team quickly.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: District of Nevada
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What court handles federal cases in Nevada? | The U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, a statewide district that staffs courthouses in Las Vegas and Reno. |
| What kind of cases dominate? | Drug trafficking, firearms, fraud, and money laundering — fraud alone was 14 percent of the district’s FY 2024 sentencings, well above the 8.6 percent national share. |
| Who prosecutes federal cases there? | The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada; as of mid-2026 it is led by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah, with no Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney in place. |
| Which circuit hears appeals? | Nevada federal judgments are reviewed by the Ninth Circuit, whose 29 authorized judgeships make it the largest of the federal courts of appeals. |
| Where are post-conviction motions filed? | Back in the District of Nevada — Section 2255 places the challenge before the court that entered the conviction or sentence. |
| Can the firm appear in the District of Nevada? | Yes — by verified pro hac vice petition under the district’s Local Rule IA 11-2, filed in association with Nevada counsel. |
Key Takeaways
- One federal district covers all of Nevada, with staffed courthouses in Las Vegas and Reno; the venue statute also names Carson City, Elko, Ely, and Lovelock as places of holding court.
- Seven district judgeships are allotted under 28 U.S.C. § 133; Chief Judge Andrew P. Gordon sits in Las Vegas as of mid-2026.
- The FY 2024 docket ran 271 sentencings, with fraud (14.0 percent) and money laundering (3.3 percent) both well above their national shares.
- Because casinos are Bank Secrecy Act financial institutions under 31 U.S.C. § 5312(a)(2)(X), Title 31 and money-laundering enforcement is a Nevada signature.
- Sigal Chattah, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, leads the prosecuting office as of mid-2026; the district has no Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney.
- In FY 2024, 63.1 percent of Nevada federal sentences varied from the guideline range — sentencing advocacy has real room to work here.
- Rule 4(b)’s 14-day notice-of-appeal deadline applies to every Nevada federal judgment, with review in the Ninth Circuit.
- We appear in the District of Nevada pro hac vice with associated local counsel, handling matters from indictment through Section 2255 review.
The District of Nevada at a Glance
The United States District Court for the District of Nevada serves the entire state from two staffed courthouses: Las Vegas, where most of the docket is heard, and Reno, which covers northern Nevada. The venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 108, also designates Carson City, Elko, Ely, and Lovelock as places of holding court, but the court’s own published locations are the two cities where its judges and clerk actually sit.
Congress allots Nevada seven district judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 133. As of mid-2026, the court’s roster shows Chief Judge Andrew P. Gordon presiding from Las Vegas, with active district judges split between Las Vegas and Reno, three senior district judges continuing to take cases, and eight magistrate judges handling everything from initial appearances to discovery disputes. It is a compact bench for a docket this varied.
Prosecutions come from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, which operates from Las Vegas and Reno. As of mid-2026 the office is led by Sigal Chattah in her capacity as First Assistant United States Attorney and Special Attorney to the United States Attorney General; the Justice Department’s national listing reflects that the district currently has no Senate-confirmed United States Attorney. Appeals from the district’s judgments go to the Ninth Circuit — the same court that reviews the adjacent District of Arizona and District of Idaho.
Day to day, practice in the district is governed by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure overlaid with Nevada’s local rules — the LR IA and LCR series — which control filing mechanics, magistrate-judge referrals, and courtroom procedure in both courthouses. Knowing those rules is table stakes; knowing how the district actually applies them is the advantage.
Federal Criminal Cases in the District
For a district its size, Nevada produces an unusually white-collar-heavy mix: fraud and money laundering prosecutions sit alongside drug and firearms cases and the occasional white-collar matter of national prominence. The procedural arc, though, is the same one every federal defendant travels.
In Nevada the opening move is often investigative paper — a grand jury subpoena, a target letter, or an IRS or FBI knock — months before any indictment is returned. Once charges land, the initial appearance and arraignment set the schedule, discovery and pretrial motions frame the dispute, and the case resolves through a plea agreement or, more often here than in most districts, a trial. Sentencing under the Guidelines follows conviction. Our federal criminal process hub explains each phase.
Our job across that arc is to find and press the points of leverage Nevada cases tend to offer — financial records that tell a more innocent story than the indictment does, Title 31 compliance evidence, discovery the government would rather not produce, and a sentencing regime in which most Nevada sentences already land outside the guideline range. Defense work in this district rewards preparation in the financial weeds.
Applied Insight: Nevada federal investigations rarely travel alone. A criminal inquiry into gaming, gambling, or investment activity often runs parallel to FinCEN examinations, Gaming Control Board scrutiny, or SEC enforcement — and a statement made casually in the regulatory lane can become Exhibit A in the criminal one. Coordinating those fronts is a defense task in itself, and it starts before anyone talks to an agent.
What Makes Nevada’s Federal Docket Different
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s FY 2024 packet for the District of Nevada counted 271 sentenced individuals — a modest docket by raw volume, but a distinctive one. Drug trafficking led at 24.7 percent, firearms followed at 18.5 percent, and fraud, theft, and embezzlement claimed 14.0 percent — more than half again the 8.6 percent national share. Money laundering, at 3.3 percent, also outran its 2.1 percent national figure, and the district tried nine criminal cases to verdict, a trial rate above the federal norm.
The money-laundering tilt is structural. Under 31 U.S.C. § 5312(a)(2)(X), a licensed casino with more than $1 million in annual gaming revenue is a “financial institution” under the Bank Secrecy Act — which means currency transaction reporting, suspicious-activity monitoring, and the full weight of Title 31 apply on the casino floor. Investigations born in that compliance machinery routinely become prosecutions under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956 and 1957, or charges of structuring and unlicensed money transmitting aimed at the cash that moves around the industry’s edges.
The fraud docket supplies the district’s headline cases. The most prominent recent example: a federal grand jury in Las Vegas indicted attorney Matthew Beasley in 2023 on wire-fraud and money-laundering counts arising from what prosecutors described as a $460 million Ponzi scheme with more than a thousand victim-investors — among the largest investment-fraud prosecutions the district has seen.
Sentencing practice here is its own story. Only 18.5 percent of FY 2024 Nevada sentences fell within the guideline range; 63.1 percent were variances, including government-sponsored downward variances in 43.9 percent of all cases — figures almost double the national pattern. For the defense, that means the guideline calculation is the floor of the argument in Nevada, not the ceiling: judges in this district demonstrably listen to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) advocacy.
The district has also produced one of the modern era’s most important discovery decisions. In United States v. Bundy, 968 F.3d 1019 (9th Cir. 2020), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal — with prejudice — of the Bunkerville-standoff prosecution after the government recklessly withheld exculpatory evidence, holding that flagrant Brady misconduct by any participating agency is imputed to the prosecution. Bundy is binding law in every Nevada federal courtroom, and it is why disciplined, documented discovery demands are a core part of how we defend cases in this district.
Appeals and Post-Conviction Matters
A Nevada federal judgment is the beginning of appellate rights, not the end of options. Direct review lies in the Ninth Circuit, and the deadline is brutal by design — under Appellate Rule 4(b), the notice of appeal is due fourteen days after judgment enters. Miss it, and even strong issues may be lost to plain-error review or lost entirely.
Collateral relief stays home as well: a post-conviction motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 attacking a Nevada conviction or sentence is filed in the District of Nevada. The circuit is also notably receptive on the back end of a sentence — Ninth Circuit district courts granted 31.0 percent of compassionate release motions in fiscal year 2025, the highest rate in the nation per the Sentencing Commission’s full-year report. Appeals and post-conviction litigation are the core of our practice, and they are record-driven work we handle for Nevada clients no matter where we stand when the brief is written.
How the Firm Practices in This Court
Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. appears in the District of Nevada the way the district’s own rules contemplate for out-of-state counsel: general bar membership is reserved under Local Rule IA 11-1 for attorneys admitted to the Supreme Court of Nevada, while Local Rule IA 11-2 admits outside lawyers case by case on a verified petition, payment of the per-case fee, and association with a member of the court’s bar as local counsel.
That local-counsel pairing is a feature, not a hurdle. It joins a Nevada-barred attorney who knows the courthouse to a federal specialist team focused entirely on the substance — the elements, the Guidelines, the suppression and discovery fights — which is uniform from district to district because the governing law is federal everywhere.
The substance is where this firm has built its reputation. Elizabeth Franklin-Best represents federal defendants in the District of Nevada through admission pro hac vice, and her record reaches well beyond any single courthouse: she has handled more than 330 federal proceedings, including over 100 appeals, and has appeared before all twelve federal circuits and the United States Supreme Court. Chambers USA 2026 ranks her for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations — a field that maps almost perfectly onto Nevada’s fraud- and money-laundering-heavy docket — and The Best Lawyers in America 2026 names her a “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice. She is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and every federal circuit, the Ninth included, and appears pro hac vice in courts across the country.
Frequently Asked Questions
What court handles federal criminal cases in Nevada?
All federal prosecutions in Nevada proceed in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, one district for the whole state. Its staffed courthouses are in Las Vegas and Reno; the venue statute also names Carson City, Elko, Ely, and Lovelock, but cases are heard where the judges sit.
Who prosecutes federal crimes in the District of Nevada?
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, working from Las Vegas and Reno. As of mid-2026 the office is led by Sigal Chattah as First Assistant United States Attorney and Special Attorney to the United States Attorney General; the district does not currently have a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney.
Which appeals court covers the District of Nevada?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reviews District of Nevada convictions and sentences. With 29 authorized judgeships it is the largest federal circuit, and the 14-day deadline for filing a notice of appeal after entry of judgment applies to every Nevada federal case.
Are casinos covered by federal money-laundering laws?
Yes. A licensed casino with more than $1 million in annual gaming revenue is a financial institution under the Bank Secrecy Act, 31 U.S.C. § 5312(a)(2)(X), so it must file currency transaction reports and monitor suspicious activity under Title 31. Failures in that system — by patrons, hosts, or businesses moving money — regularly grow into federal money-laundering, structuring, or unlicensed money transmitting prosecutions in the District of Nevada.
How does a federal criminal case proceed in the District of Nevada?
Cases usually start with an investigation — often financial — followed by indictment, arraignment, discovery, and pretrial motions. In fiscal year 2024, 96.7 percent of the district’s sentenced cases ended in guilty pleas and nine went to trial, a trial rate higher than the national norm. Conviction leads to sentencing under the federal Guidelines, where most Nevada sentences end up varying from the calculated range.
What happens if the government withholds evidence in a Nevada federal case?
The consequences can be severe for the prosecution. In United States v. Bundy, the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a major District of Nevada prosecution with prejudice because the government recklessly failed to disclose favorable evidence, and it held that flagrant misconduct by any agency on the prosecution team is imputed to the prosecutors. Pressing those discovery obligations early and in writing is a central part of defending a Nevada federal case.
Can an out-of-state lawyer represent me in the District of Nevada?
Yes. Under Local Rule IA 11-2, an attorney admitted elsewhere may appear by filing a verified petition for permission to practice in the particular case, paying the per-case fee, and associating with Nevada local counsel. It is a standard procedure the district processes routinely.
How often do Nevada federal sentences fall below the guideline range?
More often than almost anywhere. In fiscal year 2024 only 18.5 percent of District of Nevada sentences fell within the guideline range, while 63.1 percent were variances — including government-supported downward variances in 43.9 percent of all cases. The numbers show that well-built sentencing presentations genuinely move outcomes in this district.
Does the firm handle federal cases in the District of Nevada?
Yes. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. takes District of Nevada matters through pro hac vice admission with associated local counsel — investigations, indicted cases, Ninth Circuit appeals, Section 2255 motions, and compassionate release. A paid, one-hour initial consultation is the first step, and it is where we give you a candid read of the case.
Talk With a Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer
Federal trouble in Nevada — an indictment in Las Vegas, an investigation reaching into a gaming business, a Reno conviction that needs a second look on appeal or under Section 2255 — deserves counsel who works in this arena every day. Book the paid, one-hour initial consultation and let us tell you, candidly, where the case stands.