system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[DUNE] What if Yueh didn't betray Leto?

Dr Wellington was instrumental in the downfall of house Atreides. His wife was held hostage by the Baron. What if Yueh had warned the Duke about the impending attack?
gpt
If Duke Leto fought back, then the Emperor would have manufactured another excuse to take him down. It all comes down to money - and specifically, control of CHOAM revenues.

The Landsraad and the Emperor maintain their power and finances through control of CHOAM.
Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles is the vastest corporation in human history, with a complete monopoly on interstellar trade (with the exception of its permanent contract with the Spacing Guild). The Imperium is technically privatized, with all revenue collection and government services done through CHOAM.

The Emperor holds a controlling interest, 51 percent, in CHOAM, and so he is simultaneously the Padishah Emperor and the CEO of CHOAM. The head of each household in the Landsraad is a director of a local CHOAM subsidiary, and this is why the Great Houses control worlds with large exports - Giedi Prime's hydrocarbons, Caladan's agricultural products, Ix's machines. The size of their interstellar trade directly impacts their subsidiary's revenues (and thus their own revenues). 

The heads of the Great Houses are appointed to CHOAM's Board of Directors. The Landsraad is composed of all stockholders in CHOAM. All voting stock is held by the heads of Great and Minor Houses - House Corrino holding 51 percent of said voting stock.

House Corrino has, for countless years, never allowed any of the other Great Houses to hold a permanent directorship for CHOAM exports from Arrakis. By keeping the directorship of Arrakis technically temporary (the Harkonnens are governing the planet on contract, and their brutality is a direct result of trying to run the place on the cheap), the Emperor can keep most of its export revenue in CHOAM's general funds and therefore under his control.

This has been a point of contention for millennia, because all of the Great Houses want part of that money and they also want to keep it out of the hands of the Emperor. Shaddam IV has been bullying the Landsraad and skimming CHOAM profits, raising tensions (all, of course, due to Bene Gesserit manipulation).

All Directors are enjoined from taking action that harm the company, including feuds, wars, and other forms of conflict which would reduce CHOAM profits. This is why the forms of kanly are so rigorously obeyed. This is why the Emperor must work so quietly and deviously against House Atreides.

As the Emperor's popularity faded and that of Duke Leto rose, as the Emperor's contract with the Harkonnens came under increasing fire in Board meetings with threats of an internal CHOAM investigation rising, the Emperor used the Directorship of Arrakis as his ace in the hole. Giving up Arrakis (and voiding the Harkonnen contract) looked like a significant defeat. It gave Leto enormous wealth and made him the second-most powerful officer in CHOAM - not just the greatest of the Dukes, but someone with great influence over CHOAM's internal appointments and governance.

Great danger came with this appointment, however, because accepting the Directorship of Arrakis also made Duke Leto personally responsible for any violations of CHOAM bylaws. This happened shortly after he assumed office, when he made contact with the Fremen. By violating the CHOAM monopoly on the spice melange and cooperating with smugglers, the Fremen were outside the law - and when Leto allied with the Fremen in hopes of building a military force capable of going head-to-head with the Sarduakar, he was outside the law as well.

In a legal sense, as the Emperor announced it, Duke Leto had violated his legal obligations and, under CHOAM bylaws, had therefore voided the terms of his employment and the license under which he'd held voting stock in the company.