PRESS ASSOCIATION -- Police are investigating after a daughter of Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne was threatened on Twitter, it has emerged.
Durham Police said the threats appeared to originate from an email address based in Russia.
The 62-year-old entrepreneur, philanthropist and author offered a £30,000 reward on Twitter for information leading to the arrest of the person involved.
A spokesman for Durham police said: "Durham Constabulary can confirm Duncan Bannatyne has reported a number of threatening messages he had received via email and Twitter in which threats were made against a member of his family.
"These appeared to originate from an email address based in Russia.
"We have been liaising since then with Mr Bannatyne and conducting inquiries into the credibility of these threats."
Bannatyne, who was born in Clydebank, Scotland, has business interests including health clubs, hotels, media, TV, stage schools, property and transport.
He has received the OBE for his contribution to charity and supports many good causes, especially for children.
He is heavily involved with Comic Relief and Unicef, and is a passionate anti-smoking campaigner.