Hi Mark,

Yes, you are correct.  At one time Au Pair in America did recruit and place male au pairs.  And, you are correct, they did have a problem with one of their male German au pairs, Stephen Kahl. 

So there is no confusion or speculation about what took place over 10 years ago, we are posting an article from the Boston Globe we researched and found on Highbeam.com:

A trial is scheduled to begin Monday in a civil suit filed by Boston-area parents against an au pair agency that supplied a family with a male au pair who later pleaded guilty to molesting one of their children.

The civil damage suit, believed to be the first of its kind against an au pair agency, was filed in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge -- the same courthouse where British au pair Louise Woodward was tried last year in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

The families have sued the Au Pair in America agency, which supplied Stefan Kahl, a 25-year-old German. Kahl pleaded guilty in a Middlesex County courtroom to child molestation in 1993 and has been deported to Berlin. He molested the boy in his care almost daily and took dozens of pornographic photographs of another boy, a 4-year-old in a neighboring town, who was being cared for by a female German au pair. The parents of the two boys have sued the agency and its parent company for consumer fraud and negligence in screening, training and supervising Kahl. Judge Isaac Borenstein will begin jury selection Monday after hearing several pretrial motions.

The defendants, because of the publicity the Woodward case received, have asked that the trial be delayed or moved to another location. They have also filed a countersuit alleging the host family should have known what was going on. Kahl came to Massachusetts five years ago after a widow from Greater Boston, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, asked Au Pair in America for a male to help her with her 5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. She thought a young man in the house would provide balance in her children's lives, and she paid the Greenwich, Conn., agency $3,500 to find a male mother's helper. In May, 1994, shortly before Kahl's one-year stay was up, he was arrested by police on child pornography charges. Police had learned of the pictures of the 4-year-old boy in the nude or dressed only in a cowboy hat, boots, and a holster when a photo lab called authorities. When police questioned Kahl about the photographs, he admitted molesting the boy in his care. According to the suit, Kahl said he did not consider the photographs pornographic. Kahl said he had innocent sexual conduct with the boy and, because of his child-care philosophy, he did not understand that it was inappropriate for caretakers to have sexual contact with children when they express sexual curiosity. The suit alleges that Au Pair in America had represented that au pair candidates were fully screened, were of good character, and their references had been checked. But, the suit said, sexual abuse was not mentioned in training sessions, and the reference check consisted of a single telephone call to a person of Kahl's choosing. A three-day orientation program Kahl underwent provided him with information of cultural differences between Europe and America, but did not include information about inappropriate sexual contact with children or child exploitation, the suit said. "The orientation program failed to inform Kahl that while appropriate child-care philosophy in Germany and other European countries may include sexual contact between the child and the caretaker to generate openness with children when they express sexual curiosity, such conduct with children is a felony in Massachusetts and other states," the suit alleges. Before Kahl was selected to be an au pair, the agency did nothing to minimize risks associated with child molestation, the families assert in court documents. While the pornographic pictures were being taken, a female German au pair was present but failed to intervene. She was uncertain whether Kahl's photography was inappropriate, the suit said. The families assert that Au Pair in America should have recognized "red flags" in Kahl's application as indicative of tendencies toward pedophilia. They say Kahl appeared to have an unusual attraction to young children, and expressed little interest in people his own age. His application also indicated he had been abandoned by his father and stepfather and indicated a preference for male children. The plaintiffs say the defendants' screening agency in Germany had a financial incentive not to reject applicants because it would not be paid unless the candidates were accepted for placement. Under its contract with the au pair agency, the screening agent was obliged to supply a minimum number of au pairs each month and if the quota was not met the agent would lose its exclusive contract and the cash advance of 50,000 marks it received each month from the defendants, the suit says. Also named as defendants are two companies affiliated with the au pair agency: the American Institute for Foreign Study Foundation and the American Institute for Foreign Study Inc.

What is interesting in this case (besides the Mannies issue) is that it was the first time a family actually sued an au pair agency.  Eerily enough, the case took place in the same courthouse that Louise Woodward, the now infamous au pair from England, had been tried in for killing infant Matthew Eappen, the year before.  Ms. Woodward was recruited from Cultural Care Au Pair Agency from MA.

The 90s were not great years for the au pair industry!   However, due to these unfortunate cases, the State Department did come in and made changes to the cultural exchange program, mandating psychological testing of all prospective au pairs and tighter background checks that included criminal activity.  So, today, we have a better system in place for host parents and their children, to ensure safe, reliable care, from the majority of au pairs that arrive in America today.

In order to receive this kind of protection and screening, remember to always go through one of the 12 agencies governed by the State Dept.  See the list here.