Abraham “A.B.” Quintanilla III has filed a lawsuit against Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga and Q Productions in Nueces County, turning a long-running family dispute over Selena-related money into a fresh court fight. The filing on Sept. 10 asks for more than $1 million and an accounting that runs from Jan. 1, 2016 through the date of judgment.
He says a signed agreement among members of Selena’s family and her husband gives him 25% of the net proceeds from certain entertainment properties connected to Selena Quintanilla. In his filing, Quintanilla III says he discovered in the spring of 2025 that he had not received all the proceeds he was owed.
That is why the lawsuit is drawing attention now: a week before it was filed, Quintanilla III posted a lengthy statement on Instagram saying he intended to take legal action after what he described as “years of accumulated situations, decisions, and circumstances” he had kept quiet about for years. The case gives that statement legal force and puts a specific dollar demand on a dispute that had already spilled into public view.
The complaint also says Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga and Q Productions failed or refused to provide a complete accounting of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, transactions, distributions and net profits. That accounting request is broad enough to reach the business records behind the properties tied to Selena, not just one payment or one year, which is what makes the filing potentially expensive and complicated.
But the family’s response cuts the other way. On Sept. 2, Suzette Quintanilla and Marcella Quintanilla said A.B. Quintanilla III’s statement contained false insinuations about the family and denied wrongdoing by Suzette, saying there was no theft and that she had not stolen, misappropriated or improperly taken money or property belonging to A.B., Marcella, Chris, Selena’s estate or any family-owned or jointly-owned business.
The dispute now comes down to the same narrow question dressed in two very different stories: whether the old agreement really covers the revenues A.B. Quintanilla III says it does, and whether the records he is asking for will show he was underpaid. For now, the lawsuit has put that fight in front of a court, and the accounting he wants will decide whether the gap is real or whether the family’s denial holds.
