After Kazakhstan became an independent country in 1991, President Nursultan Nazarbayev selected Utemuratov to go to Vienna and find economic opportunities for the new republic.

[1] In 1995, Utemuratov, jointly with a group of partners, founded the Almaty Trade and Finance (ATF) Bank; by 2007 he was its controlling shareholder.

[9] Kassa Nova, formerly owned by Utemuratov, was established in 2009 and was acquired in 2020 by Freedom Holding Corp for an approximate $41 million.

[21] In 2013, Glencore gave a loan to Astana Property Management (APM), a company owned by Bulat Utemuratov via Verny Capital.

[7] Utemuratov sold his Glencore shares in December 2021[23] On 1 December 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported about the freezing of Utemuratov's assets including stakes in luxury hotels, cash in bank accounts in half a dozen countries and a Burger King franchise, by a UK civil court on the claim of BTA Bank.

[24][25] The freezing injunction of the English Court in relation to the assets of Bulat Utemuratov was lifted in December 2020 following a settlement between the two parties.

[25] In March 2022, Dame Margaret Hodge, a British Member of Parliament, named Utemuratov in a speech advocating for sanctions against Kazakh billionaires.

[26] Utemuratov was one of 30 oligarchs and members of the Kazakh elite who, Hodge claimed, had benefited from their ties to the Nazarbayev regime.