90 DAY FIANCÉ Michael Eloshway sentenced to 10 years in prison

90 Day Fiancé Season 1 star Michael Eloshway was found guilty of multiple counts of possession of child p*rnography on July 24, 2024. The convictions are more concerning given that Michael has a five-year-old daughter with his wife, and 90 Day Fiancé co-star, Aziza Eloshway.

Eloshway was found guilty of one count of possession of child P*rnography and one count of receipt and distribution of visual depictions of real minors engaged in sexually exp|icit conduct. He was facing a prison sentence between between 17 years and 5 months to 20 years.

Michael Eloshway Sentenced To Years

Earlier today, Michael Eloshway was back in federal court in Ohio where a judge sentenced the 42-year-old to 10 years and one month in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan’s sentence was well below the 17.5 to 20 years recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.

From Cleveland.com:

Gaughan said she went lower than the guidelines suggested because child-p*rn possession offenses often yield higher recommendations than other crimes that are equally or more serious, because Eloshway’s background includes no prior criminal history and because he passed a polygraph test in which Eloshway said he never had any intention of seeking out real children.

Gaughan allowed Eloshway to self-surrender to prison after Eloshway asked for one more Christmas with his daughter. The Bureau of Prisons will decide when he must start serving sentence.

Eloshway was also required to pay $10,000 to a human trafficking victims fund as well as $5,000 each to two of the victims featured in the files found on his computer.

The sentence comes after several of Eloshway’s family members, including his mother and wife Aziza, submitted letters to the judge asking for leniency. You can read those two letters below.

According to Cleveland.com, Eloshway turned down a plea agreement that would have resulted in a prison sentence between 12 years and four months to 15 years and seven months.

Aziza Eloshway’s Letter To The Judge

Dear Judge Gaughan,

I am writing to you regarding my husband, Michael Eloshway, in the light of his recent conviction. My name is Aziza, and I am his wife of 11 years. I have known him for over 12 years and can assure you that this conviction is not a reflection of his true character. Mike is a loving father, a caring husband, a loyal friend and, overall, a good and kind person.

I met him in 2012, on a learning website, where I was studying English language. I am originally from Russia, but moved to the Unites States over 11 years ago to be with Mike. We had to overcome a lot to be together and we’ve built a beautiful family over the years.

We have a 5-year-old daughter together, her name is Olivia and Mike is a very involved parent. She is very attached to Mike as he is a very loving and caring dad. They go on father-daughter dates all the time; they share hobbies like collecting rocks, making bread from scratch and reading books together. They have their own little routines every day- he always wakes her up in the morning and he is the one that puts her to bed at night. It breaks my heart that my daughter will not have her father in the full capacity, and I know it will disturb her life greatly not having him around. He would do anything for his daughter, and it absolutely kills him that he will have to be apart from her.

Mike is my family and the closest person that I have, and I cannot imagine my life without him. He has a kind soul, and he never shies away from helping anyone.

He is very close to his parents and his sister, and they have a very strong relationship. He is a rock to this family in so many ways and this traumatic experience with his trial and the conviction has left us all shocked and heartbroken. My family is being torn apart and I know that he has been tortured by his feelings of guilt and regret for the irresponsible mistake that he’s made.

I greatly appreciate the time you are taking to read this letter and kindly ask you to please take this information into consideration when determining your sentencing for this case.

Kind Regards, Aziza Eloshway.

Michael Eloshway’ Mother’s Letter To The Judge

Honorable Judge Gaughan,

I am writing on behalf of my son, Michael Eloshway and asking for your mercy and compassion at his sentencing. I will start with what our family has gone through over the last two years because I do believe it has some bearing on where we are now.

In September of 2021 Michael was involved in a horrific car crash in which broke several ribs and his hip. Amazingly he escaped alive. The accident left him unable to function other than to sit in a chair, using a walker to get to the bathroom and to get food for himself which was extremely painful. It took months of recovery for him to be able to walk normally and get back to work.

In early 2022 Michael lost a close friend to suicide. In February my husband’s mother passed away (his only living grandmother). On July 3rd my 65 year old brother passed away from cancer, and on November 8th my father (the only grandfather he has ever known) died. Michael was extremely close to my dad (PopPop). Then, our daughter, Michael’s only sibling, Amy was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer on December 3rd at the age of 39. By the time of diagnosis the cancer had spread to her hips, breastbone, spine, brain and liver.

As you can imagine, this news was a horrific blow to our family as Amy is the mother of two young boys, who are currently 4 and 8 years old. Amy is still undergoing treatment but her physical health is rapidly declining. The treatment she has been on for nearly two years has now stopped working and the tumors are starting to grow again. They are now trying a much more toxic chemotherapy but her prognosis is not good. Her father and I have built an addition to our home to help care for Amy and the boys while her husband works. He works 7 days a week for long hours. So we are facing the challenge of co-parenting her sons as best we can at the ages of 62 and 65. I had no choice but to retire early from my job to assist Amy in getting through her treatments and hospitalizations.

Now we move to May 9th of 2023 and the search of Michael’s computers and home and the finding of files containing child pornography. I have to tell you about Mike and how this was just unimaginable to us.

My husband and I were married very young in 1980 and I had Michael in March of 1982 and then Amy in December of the same year. We are still married.

Mike was always our good child. He never gave us one bit of trouble in school or any other time in his life. He has never been in a physical altercation with anyone, choosing to solve problems logically. I never got bad reports on him from any of his teachers other than maybe missing homework. He was and is a steady, hardworking, faithful, funny, honest, talented, good humored and good person.

In High School Mike played baseball and wrestled. He was a member of the Jazz Band, Marching Band and Latin Club. He always got good grades. Mike is a very talented guitar player and was in his own band in high school and then played with the band after leaving high school.

He started work at Sea World after he graduated and became close friends with several guys that came here from Russia to work during the summer. He traveled to Russia a couple years later to visit those friends. While trying to learn some Russian language skills he met his wife Aziza online. They fell in love and she left her life and home country to come here and marry Mike. She became an American citizen early in 2024. They recently celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary.

Mike has worked as a bailiff for the City of Cleveland Courts and then worked in IT for all of the judges. Mike has always been a faithful husband and devoted father. He has never been the type of guy to go out running with friends, always preferring to be home with his family.

Our family is very close. We all live in Twinsburg and we have dinner together almost every weekend. We do all of the family celebrations together along with my sister and her husband who also live here in Twinsburg.

I understand the gravity of Mike’s extremely poor decision making. I truly believe that working from home through Covid, his accident and the losses our family faced put him into a severe depression. I know he did become increasingly addicted to p*rnography during that period and was downloading files containing p*rnography as well as movies, music, football games, etc.

I acknowledge the severity of Mike’s lack of judgment and self control. He made a horrific mistake that has caused him to lose his $80,000 a year job, his freedom, his life savings to pay for his attorney. He lost the great reputation, his standing in the community and mostly his own self respect.

Mike has always been a good person and law abiding citizen. He feels horrible and understands the pain and suffering this whole thing has caused his family. He has talked to his father and me about all of this and how he is not this person, he has no interest in child p*rn and he is just completely broken.

He has managed to get himself back to work full time and take care of his family financially again after losing everything. He works for my sister who owns a business that he has an opportunity to own someday. He has been a huge asset to her during her takeover of the business and has learned entirely new skills in her hydraulic business and has the opportunity to learn CNC machining.

In closing I understand Mike must face the consequences of his actions. I struggle to understand how a long period of incarceration for someone who has always been a good person will benefit society. I fear for his safety in prison.

It seems there has to be some other form of punishment for him that would not completely destroy the rest of his life as well as the lives of those who love him. We are facing the loss of our daughter and our son at the same time.

The pain we feel and Mike feels is completely overwhelming. I have been hospitalized twice this past year with Tokatsubo cardiomyopathy (also known as broken heart syndrome). I worry about my health and the health of my husband as we are desperately needed right now to care for Amy and all of the grandchildren.

The love we all have for Mike is immense and watching him suffer for the last two years has been devastating to all of us. He feels so broken and is so sorry for his actions that have led to this. Never in a million years would I think Mike would be convicted of a felony. He has always been a stand up guy and a stellar human being.I have always been proud to be his mother.

I sincerely appreciate your time and attention to my letter.

Kerry Eloshway

Details on Michael Eloshway’s charges

Michael Eloshway was indicted in June of 2023 for one count of Possession of Child P*rnography and one count of Receipt and Distribution of Visual Depictions of Real Minors Engaged In Sexually Exp|icit Conduct.

The initial filings in the case, including the indictment, had very little information about the specific allegations against Eloshway. In June of 2024, federal prosecutors shared details about their investigation in a new court filing.

In March of 2023, Federal investigators were running queries in an attempt “to track Internet Protocol (IP) addresses suspected of trading Child Se*ual Ab*se Material (CSAM) via BitTorrent.” According to the tracking service used by investigators, Eloshway’s IP address “engaged in the receipt, possession, and distribution” of CSAM between February 13, 2022 and March 8, 2023.

On March 27, 2023, Eloshway’s IP address again was identified receiving and sharing parts of files known to be CSAM. During this time, Eloshway’s IP address received or transmitted approximately 63,439 files, of which, approximately 9,541 files were determined to be severe files. Of the files shared and downloaded, approximately 4,517 contained sad*sm and mas*chism.

Federal agents executed a search warrant on Eloshway and his home in Twinsburg, Ohio. Among the devices seized during the search was a black HP desktop computer.

#90DayFiance Season 1 star Michael Eloshway "was terminated from his employment" after being indicted on child p0rnography possession charges. Plus, we now have a trial date. https://t.co/KKZlJR6nYA

— Starcasm (@starcasm) July 27, 2023

Michael Eloshway admits possession of child p*rn

Agents advised Eloshway of his rights, and he consented to an interview. During the interview, Eloshway “stated the HP desktop contained child p*rnography.”

More on Eloshway’s “confession” from the filing:

Eloshway admitted he knew how BitTorrent worked and had been using it for 20 years. He stated he downloaded large batches of p*rnography from BitTorrent and those batches contained child p*rnography. He stated he would delete the child p*rnography that would be downloaded in batches. Eloshway admitted the recent child p*rnography he downloaded had not been deleted and would be in his downloads folder on his computer.

Eloshway, via BitTorrent, distributed 62 files CSAM (five videos and 57 images) directly to law enforcement. The black HP desktop computer that Eloshway admitted to storing child p*rnography on was analyzed and contained 7,182 unique files of CSAM (four videos and the remaining images).

Michael Eloshway on 90 Day Fiancé

Michael Eloshway was 31 years old when he filmed for the first season of 90 Day Fiancé. He was dating 21-year-old Russian student Aziza, and the two would eventually get married on the show.

Here is their official bio from TLC, along with two video clips:

Mike and Aziza met on an international language learning website. Mike wanted to learn Russian for an upcoming trip, and Aziza wanted to learn English. The site paired them up, and they began speaking to each other regularly online.

Mike visited Aziza in Russia, and after spending 6 days together, the two decided to get married.

As a full-time student, Aziza has never had to take care of anything but her studies.

With Mike eager to start a family, Aziza will face a steep learning curve as she leaves the comforts of her familiar culture, sheltered life and studies for a new world filled with first experiences and a whole lot of pressure.

Mike Eloshway and Aziza Eloshway have remained together after their marriage featured on 90 Day Fiance Season 1.

In September of 2018, Aziza announced she was pregnant with their first child. The first-time mom-to-be made the announcement with a gallery of three maternity photos shared on Instagram. “Mom&Dad❤️2019?‍?‍?” she captioned the gallery.

On January 14, 2019, Aziza gave birth to a baby girl. “Our Princess has arrived!” Mike captioned an Instagram photo of himself with his baby girl. “Welcome Olivia Joan, born 1/14! Great job, mommy!”

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com