The battle over the profits from the estate of the Queen of Tejano, Selena Quintanilla, is heating up. This week, the lawsuit that the late star's brother, A.B. Quintanilla, filed against his sister, Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga, officially dropped in the Nueces County court system.
The 14-page petition was formally filed on Thursday, September 10, after more than a week of public feuding between the two former Selena y Los Dinos band siblings.
In it, A.B. Quintanilla claims that his sister - who now controls Selena's estate after their father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., died last December - has been hiding profits from him for the past 10 years. Now, A.B. is hoping a Nueces County judge will force Suzette to fork over a decade's worth of financial documents, pay him the as-yet undeclared share of profits he says he's owed, and pay for the cost of filing the lawsuit.
Selena superfan Yolanda Saldivar murdered Selena in 1995, when the rising star was just 23 years old. She died without a will, leaving her family and husband, Chris Perez, to work out an agreement over how to handle Selena's estate - including any future profits generated by her music, likeness and intellectual property. The agreement was under the control of the siblings' father, Abraham, via a company called Q Productions Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, A.B. was entitled to 25%, his lawsuit claims.
However, in his suit, AB claims that his sister, Suzette, has effectively maintained control of Q Productions for years before Abraham's death on December 13, 2025. The lawsuit alleges that Suzette took control of the company sometime in 2016 after Abraham "delegated" CEO responsibilities to her while maintaining a public facade "as if he were in official control until his passing."
Nearly a decade later, in the spring of 2025, A.B. says he discovered that his sister has allegedly been intentionally withholding his fair share of profits from the Selena estate. Moreover, A.B. claims that, since Suzette controlled access to all the company's financials, there was no way for him to know that he was not getting paid fairly.
"Defendants fraudulently concealed the non-payment, failed to disclose material information despite having a duty to disclose it, and made representations or omissions that prevented (A.B. Quintanilla) from discovering his claims," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit formally accuses Suzette and Q Productions of breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
A.B. is asking the court for an "equitable accounting," which would force Suzette to hand over a full accounting of Q Productions' financials over the last decade, from January 1, 2016 until today. That includes any revenues, royalties or other profits generated by Selena's estate, as well as any expenses the company has incurred over the last decade, and calculations of what A.B.'s "contractual share" of profits should have been.
A.B. is also asking the court to formally declare that he is a beneficiary of the Selena estate settlement agreement, and as such, is entitled to profits from the estate. Finally, A.B. wants the money he says he should have received all along. The lawsuit also attempts to get out ahead of any potential counterclaims that the statute of limitations has run out on A.B.'s case by asking the court to consider that the clock started in 2025 and not a decade ago.
"Defendants' conduct prevented (A.B.) from discovering the facts giving rise to (his) claims until the Spring of 2025. Plaintiff acted diligently after discovering those facts," the suit reads.
However, after more than a week of online feuding, the lawsuit does not list a specific dollar figure that A.B. is hoping to recover. No $48 million or $30 million figures. The closest the petition gets to naming a number is stating A.B. "seeks monetary relief exceeding $1,000,000.00."
The lawsuit also doesn't give any hint as to how A.B. discovered the alleged fraud last year. Nor were any documents substantiating A.B.'s claims included in the filing.
Court records show that Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga and Q Productions have yet to formally be served with copies of the lawsuit. Once they are, however, they will have about three weeks to file their responses.
Sign up for Afternoon Headlines, MySA's free newsletter bringing you San Antonio's top stories of the day.
This article originally published at Selena's siblings are facing off in court. Here's what sparked the lawsuit..