[1] On 22 May 2009, Bishimbayev was appointed as the assistant to the President of Kazakhstan, where he served the post until becoming the Vice Minister of Trade and Economic Development on 16 March 2010.

[1][2] On 6 May 2016, he was appointed as Minister of National Economy after waves of unrest during the protests against land reforms to replace Erbolat Dosaev, however he was eventually dismissed from his post on 28 December 2016.

[8][9] Bishimbayev appealed to President Nursultan Nazarbayev for pardon which was granted in February 2019, and his prison term was reduced from 10 to 4 years.

[13][14] Bakytzhan Bayzhanov, Bishimbayev's brother and the director of the "Gastro-Center" restaurant complex, in which the murder occurred, was also arrested on suspicion of failure to report a crime and leaving of a person in danger.

[15] According to Deutsche Welle, restaurant staff were forbidden to call emergency services, and an instruction was given to erase CCTV footage under the pretext of technical failure.

[16] On 22 April 2024 Bishimbayev's phone inspection revealed 12 videos worth of footage of him beating, torturing, and berating Nukenova filmed on the day of her death.