A routine fraud investigation turned into the stuff of nightmares after federal investigators and Michigan police made a terrifying discovery in the home of Ryon Lenell Travis. 
Travis was being investigated for charging more than $50,000 to a local business's credit card, but when cops executed a search warrant at his house, they found evidence of sexual abuse, sex trafficking, as well as a cellphone filled with photographs of child pornography.

Law enforcement even found three women whom Travis called his "wives" at the residence, with one of the women chained up to a stripper pole in the living room. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward described the horrific scene: "There was a third woman chained at the neck to a the stripper pole, sitting in the living room," she said. "She had a chain around her neck with a padlock on the chain and then a longer chain had connected her to the stripper pole."

According to Click on Detroit, investigators believe that two of the women found in the house are victims of human trafficking, and the woman who was chained to the stripper pole told authorities that Travis sold her, along with other women, online for sex. Woodward explained, "She said that if she or the other women refused to dance or perform sex acts, the defendant [Travis] would be violent with them, and that he would hit them with a closed fist, kick them or push them down."

The discovery of child pornography adds to the gruesome scene. The photos are reportedly of Travis's own 5-year-old daughter being sexually abused by an adult male, prompting authorities to refer to the crime scene as a "house of horrors."

Travis, a self-identified "sovereign citizen," demanded that the charges against him be dropped. "My point is that all laws are commercial in nature and I am a natural-born human of the American land," Travis said. "Since all laws are commercial in nature and I choose not to do business with this court, I ask that this case be dismissed."

That request was, obviously, denied, and Travis is being charged with possessing, producing, and distributing child pornography, as well as sex trafficking. 

(Photo: FOX News2)