According to his own account he was a shoe shiner in his childhood. He is known as a charitable figure in Turkey where he provided scholarships to students in Kars and also Syrian refugees. He is also reported to be the owner of several companies in the energy sector and the pharmaceutical industry. He was the founding majority shareholder of the Konak heat in 2009. In 2016, the SBK holding partnered together with American Washakie Renewable Energy as the latter wanted to make investments in Turkey. Through the SBK Holding he bought the airline Borajet in 2017 for 260 million dollars from Yalçin Ayasli. The Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, used a Bombardier business jet from Borajet during the campaign for the Constitutional Referendum in 2017. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reports that Korkmaz together with American businessmen was involved in an attempt to liberate the christian pastor Andrew Brunson from Turkish detention in October 2018. He is also credited with having organized meetings with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his American business-partner now prosecuted in the USA.