Murdered CEO owed “substantial amount of money” to driver who killed him, records show

Recently released court records show that the CEO who was allegedly murdered by his own driver owed the man a “substantial amount of money”.

46-year-old ATG Truckload CEO, Dane Koteski, was found “lying face down in a pool of blood” in his office as it burned on March 5th in Crestwood, Illinois. On Sunday, March 16th, 53-year-old Josif Suclea, a truck driver for ATG, was charged with first-degree murder for the incident. Now, court documents point to a potential motive for the serious crime. 

According to ABC 7, Suclea was a long-time truck driver for ATG, and Koteski had recently told him that ATG “was going bankrupt.” Koteski also “owed a substantial amount of money to Suclea,” but “was unable to pay him.”

Security footage shows Suclea following Koteski into the company office at 2:37 p.m. on March 5th. Koteski is then seen stepping into another room to take a phone call, and Suclea follows him. There was then allegedly a  “brief struggle and then crying is heard from the room.” Koteski can be heard asking “why?” and Suclea responds “I had to.” When asked, the person on the other end of the phone described hearing “scuffling and muffling and then the victim’s phone went dead.” The phone was later found “in a trash bin in the ATG [Truckload] office” with “a bloody fingerprint.”

Suclea then fled the scene in an ATG Freightliner semi truck, and was tracked to a truck stop in Holland, Michigan, where he was arrested and found “in possession of a large folding knife.” Investigators later found “blood on the steering wheel” and on the truck floorboards. It has since been determined that Koteski’s throat was cut. 

Suclea is currently being held without bail in Cook County and has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 18th. He has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment. It is unclear when he was diagnosed. There are no records of ATG Truckload formally filing for bankruptcy.