TLC
90 Day Fiance’s Michael Eloshway Found Guilty in Child Pornography Case: Exclusive Details
90 Day Fiancé alum Michael Eloshway was found guilty on two charges of child pornography in the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, In Touch can confirm.
Eloshway, 40, faces a sentence of 17 to 20 years behind bars for receiving, distributing, and possessing child pornography, following his conviction by an Ohio jury, according to Cleveland.com.
Before the guilty verdict, In Touch can exclusively confirm that Eloshway’s lawyer argued that the TLC alum’s charges “cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“His internet search requests were generic. The contraband came as unindexed parts of “torrents/floods” of data,” lawyer Jay Milano explained in defense of Eloshway in a filing on June 18. “The contraband was delivered among a small number “torrents/floods” over time. Those torrent/floods were but a small percentage of total searches over the same period. When discovered, he deleted them.”
The season 1 alum was indicted on June 24, 2023, for “knowingly receiving and distributing … depictions of real minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct” between February 2022 and March 2023, according to court records viewed by In Touch. Additionally, the former reality star possessed a “black HP desktop computer that contained child pornography” on May 9, 2023.
The indictment further stated that at least one image involved in Eloshway’s offense depicted a prepubescent minor under the age of 12.
Eloshway first appeared on season 1 of the 90 Day Fiancé franchise in 2014, alongside his now-wife, Aziza Eloshway. The couple met on a language learning website when he was 31 and she was 21. Aziza, 30, initially planned to travel to the United States on a work visa, but after being denied, she applied for a K-1 visa and moved to the United States from Russia in 2013.
Prior to her overseas arrival, Mike’s friends questioned his online girlfriend’s intentions and suspected that she was only using him for a green card.
“It concerns me that she tried to get a working permit here and she was denied, and then all of a sudden, it became a great idea for them to continue the relationship,” his best friend Kelli said during the January 12, 2014, episode, emphasizing that 90 days wasn’t enough time to get to know someone. “I feel as though, like in a relationship, a lot of things come natural, and in their case, it’s being forced.”
After getting married, Aziza announced she was pregnant and expecting their first child in September 2018. “Mom and Dad,” she captioned the announcement on Instagram, adding a red heart emoji. Mike shared the news via Twitter, writing, “Coming 2019.” Their daughter, Olivia Joan, was born in January 2019.
“Guess who’s here? Little Miss Olivia Joan,” the Volgograd native wrote in the caption of her birth announcement on Instagram. In the photo, her husband gently kissed their newborn daughter on the cheek while holding her in his arms.
Although it is unclear if the pair are still together amid his legal troubles, they seemingly spent Easter together in April 2023. Aziza shared a photo with their 5-year-old daughter, Olivia, tagging her husband as the photographer. Since then, Mike has deactivated his social media profiles and Aziza has set her accounts to private.
Have a tip? Send it to us! Email In Touch at [email protected].
