The high court in Hunan Province on Sunday refuted the claim that they executed a convicted fraudster without notifying his family, while his lawyer and daughter said the court is lying. 

Zeng Dingxin, spokesman of the Hunan Provincial High People's Court, told the Xinhua News Agency Sunday that the Changsha Intermediate People's Court had already published a notice that it was to execute Zeng Chengjie on its bulletin board on Friday.

The death sentence, carried out on Friday, followed approval by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on June 14.

Zeng Chengjie, a real estate developer in Jishou, Hunan, was often referred to as "China's Bernie Madoff" due to the scale of his fraud. He was convicted by the Changsha court in 2011 for the fraudulent fund-raising of sums of up to 3.45 billion yuan ($562 million) and causing a loss of some 600 million yuan.

The spokesperson said due to the absence of contact information for Zeng Chengjie's son and daughter in the files, the court mailed the execution notice to his son-in-law on Friday after the sentence, informing his family they should pick up his ashes in a week.

The spokesman said the executed man's will and a letter to his son will be transferred to his family soon.

Zeng Shan, the daughter, told the Global Times the family received the notice Sunday noon, which was postmarked Saturday, and they got the ashes on Monday, adding that she met a judge from the SPC on June 14, and was told the court would check out all the evidence impartially without being affected by Hunan officials.

However, she learned from media reports later that the penalty review was passed the day she met the judge.

Wang Shaoguang, Zeng Chengjie's defense lawyer, told the Oriental Morning Post on Sunday that the Changsha court kept Zeng Chengjie's son's phone number, as well as his own, when he registered to be his lawyer.

Wang said that he hadn't heard of the death penalty review order till Sunday, when he saw media reports, claiming that there are several illegal procedures in the case and he will hold the judge accountable through legal ways.

"The court is obliged to inform in different phases of the case," Hong Daode, a law professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times, adding that a bulletin notice indicates what judicial activities the court will carry out, and requires no response from the public.

"However, they can't replace their duty to inform the family before the execution," said Hong. "There is no clear regulation on when the death penalty review should be passed to the lawyer, but the lawyer is entitled to report to the court's discipline inspection department of the judge's improper acts, such as failure to inform."