TORY peer Michelle Mone has claimed she is too “mega busy in Silicon Valley” to deal with complaints from online promoters that they were mistreated during her latest project.

The Glasgow lingerie tycoon, 46, insisted a row over her new virtual currency had been “blown out of proportion” and denied claims the venture has been a fiasco.

She launched her “British Bitcoin” earlier this year with billionaire boyfriend Doug Barrowman, 53.

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But the project is to be revamped amid claims it failed to attract enough backing.

The pair had hoped to raise up to $80 million from investors for their cryptocurrency EQUI, but managed just $7m, according to the Financial Times.

Meanwhile, marketers enlisted to promote the digital currency on social media and across the internet – known as “bounty hunters” – claim they are to be paid a fraction of what they initially believed.

When they complained, they were allegedly threatened with criminal action through the Telegram messaging service.

A journalist from the FT was also told: “We are watching your every move with our lawyers.”

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A spokeswoman for Baroness Mone told The Herald “EQUI did not run the Bounty Telegram channel that you are referring to”.

She said a third-party company, AmaZix, was responsible for managing the bounty hunters.

EQUI parted ways with the agency but insisted it will still honour the contract with the paid promoters.

The spokeswoman added: “The Bounty contract is 2 per cent of what was raised. As a gesture of goodwill we decided to pay out 5% so actually we are the good guys here.”

She argued Equi “hasn’t been a flop or failure, quite the contrary”, adding: “We stopped our launch as we are working on a massive global announcement that will take the business from a UK focused into a global business overnight.

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“It is totally genius what our new founder has done – a global blockbuster.”

Journalists contacting Ms Mone about the latest concerns were told that “if they publish anything slanderous or lies reg[arding] our brand or founders we will take legal action”.

Her spokeswoman said: “The most important part in all of this is that our investors are 100% happy

“Lady Mone has been mega busy in Silicon Valley dealing with our new founder so to be honest she doesn’t have the time to be involved by Bounty people complaining over nothing.

“If they need to complain they should do this to the agency who hired them in the first place and not EQUI.”

It is understood Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is due to join the venture.

Ms Mone, who grew up in Glasgow's East End, was given a seat in the House of Lords in 2015, when she became David Cameron’s “entrepreneur tsar”.

Earlier this year, she claimed to be "one of the biggest experts in cryptocurrency and blockchain".